Saint Barbara
Artist: Jan van Eyck
1437
Drawing
The composition depicts the young Saint Barbara, a woman of Syrian descent who lived during the reign of emperor Maximian (305 - 311) just before Christianity was adopted by Rome under the rule of Constantine. According to legend, her beauty was so great, her father locked her away to keep her safe allowing only he and those under his discretion to visit her. After years of isolation, followed by her refusal of all suitors, her father allowed her to leave the tower. Soon thereafter, she encounters Christianity and secretly converts to the fledgling, and then illegal, religion. Throughout being attacked, starved and later tortured by her pagan father and city officials she remains true to her new faith. After being paraded through the town with another tortured martyr, she was beheaded by her father, who was, in turn, struck by lighting.
This drawing on Oak Panel is housed in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp, Belgium
Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata
Artist: Jan Van Eyck
1430
Painting
This small 5-by-7 inch painting depicts an important moment during the saint's 40-day fast in the wilderness of Mount Penna (La Verna), when Francis of Assisi experienced a vision and received the stigmata, or wounds of the crucified Christ. The stigmata, which never heals, became the living proof of his holiness. Witness to the event is the crucified figure of Christ, who overlooks the monks, Francis and Leo, clad in the brown and grey habits that identify them as Franciscan. The depiction of the exhausted figures, however, has been described as anatomically awkward, and the two monks are not well integrated within the landscape (these may have been completed by assistants in the artist's workshop).
This work is oil on Parchment or Vellum on Wooden Panel and is housed in the John G. Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum, PA
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