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Article
Barbara Longhi’s Saint Agnes of Rome:Iconic Images of Purity and Virtue
Author(s)
Liana De Girolami Cheney
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2022.03.001
Affiliation(s)
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, USA
ABSTRACT
Barbara Longhi of Ravenna (1552-1638) enjoyed creating small devotional paintings depicting holy saints, in particular Saint Agnes (c. 291-304). This saint’s life and martyrdom was recorded by the Bishop of Milan, Saint Ambrose (339-397), a Doctor of the Church and theologian, in his book Concerning Virgins (374) and by Jacobus de Voragine, the Archbishop of Genoa, in his Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea, 1275). The saint’s story continues to be imaged and recounted to the present day because she is an icon of a pure and virtuous adolescent female. Barbara Longhi, along with her father, Luca Longhi (1507-1580), painted several versions of Saint Agnes. In their many depictions they composed two types of images: a single—solo—image of the saint; and her presence in a group of saints—a theme known as holy conversation. In her paintings of Saint Agnes, however, Barbara Longhi preferred to depict the solo image of the saint as virgo, a young maiden of virtue. This essay is composed of two parts: (1) an account of the life and martyrdom of Saint Agnes; and (2) an iconographical interpretation of Barbara Longhi’s Saint Agnes of Rome.
KEYWORDS
Barbara and Luca Longhi, Saint Agnes, virgo, Christian symbolism, mannerism, Counter-Reformation Movement, Pre-Raphaelite Movement
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