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Article
Barbara Longhi’s Saint Justina of Padua: Pagan Symbolism and Christian Martyrology
Author(s)
Liana De Girolami Cheney
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DOI:10.17265/2328-2177/2022.09.001
Affiliation(s)
University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, USA
ABSTRACT
Barbara Longhi of Ravenna (1552-1638) skillfully created small devotional altarpieces depicting holy saints with their respective attributes of martyrdom, seen in Saint Agnes of Rome (c. 291-304) with an ewe, Saint Cecilia (c. 200-235) with a portable organ, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 287-304) with a broken spiked wheel, and Saint Justina of Padua (c. 3rd century) with a small sword in her chest. For their physical sacrifice, Heaven rewarded them with a palm frond as an honorific spiritual gift. Barbara included some of these saints in her paintings on the theme of holy conversation (sacra conversazione; a religious gathering with the Madonna and Child) and depicted the female saints as a single panel—solo image—for private devotion or supplicatory assistance. Most of the biographies and historicity about the lives of these saints are recounted by Jacobus de Voragine (1222-1298), Archbishop of Genoa, in his Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea, 1275). This essay only comments on the iconography of one of Barbara’s female saints, Saint Justina of Padua.
KEYWORDS
Barbara and Luca Longhi, palm frond, martyrdom, Saint Justina of Padua, Christian iconography, pagan symbolism
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