Friday, July 17, 2020

09 Works, Today, July 17th, is Greatmartyr Marina's day, her story in art #198

Francisco de Zurbarán  (1598–1664)
Saint Margaret of Antioch, between 1630 and 1634
Oil on canvas
Height: 194 cm (76.3 in); Width: 112 cm (44 in)
National Gallery, London

Francisco de Zurbarán (baptized November 7, 1598 – August 27, 1664) was a Spanish painter. He is known primarily for his religious paintings depicting monks, nuns, and martyrs, and for his still-lifes. Zurbarán gained the nickname Spanish Caravaggio, owing to the forceful, realistic use of chiaroscuro in which he excelled. 

Zurbarán was born in Fuente de Cantos, near Badajoz. In 1617, after training in Seville, he returned to Llerena in his native province. By 1629 he was back in Seville, where he became the city's official painter.

In 1634 he was in Madrid painting mythologies for the Buen Retiro, Philip IV's new palace, perhaps through the intervention of his friend Velázquez. His last years were not so successful and he died in Madrid in poverty. More on Francisco de Zurbarán

Greatmartyr Marina (Margaret) of Antioch, in Pisidia, was born in southern Asia Minor, into the family of a pagan priest. In infancy she lost her mother, and her father gave her into the care of a nursemaid, who raised Marina in the Orthodox Faith. Upon learning that his daughter had become a Christian, the father angrily disowned her, adopted by her nurse, she lived in the country, keeping sheep with her foster mother.

Jean Fouquet
Saint Margaret attracts the attention of a Roman prefect
Miniature
From the Hourly Book of Etienne Chevalier
Conde Museum

This episode from the life of Saint Marguerite is borrowed from the Golden Legend of Jacques de Voragine. Fouquet seized the moment when the prefect Olibrius returning to his castle broke away from his suite to contemplate Marguerite, with whom he suddenly fell in love. Indifferent to the look that arises on her, the young shepherdess, standing near her companions, spins the distaff while keeping the animals of her nurse before a peaceful countryside landscape, where the fields stretch as far as the eye can see. More on this work

Jean (or Jehan) Fouquet (ca.1420–1481) was a French painter and miniaturist. A master of panel painting, manuscript illumination, and the apparent inventor of the portrait miniature, he is considered one of the most important painters from the period between the late Gothic and early Renaissance. He was the first French artist to travel to Italy and experience first-hand the early Italian Renaissance.

He was born in Tours. Little is known of his life, but it is certain that he was in Italy before 1447, when he executed a portrait of Pope Eugene IV, who died that year. The portrait survives only in copies from much later.


Upon his return to France, while retaining his purely French sentiment, he grafted the elements of the Tuscan style, which he had acquired during his period in Italy, upon the style of the Van Eycks, forming the basis of early 15th-century French art and becoming the founder of an important new school.

His work can be associated with the French court's attempt to solidify French national identity in the wake of its long struggle with England in the Hundred Years' War. More on Jean Fouquet

During the time of the persecution against Christians under the emperor Diocletian (284-305), when she was fifteen years old, Saint Marina was arrested and locked up in prison. The young prisoner prepared for her impending fate.

The governor Olymbrios, charmed with the beautiful girl, tried to persuade her to renounce the Christian Faith and become his wife. But the saint, unswayed, refused his offers. The vexed governor gave the holy martyr over to torture. Having beaten her fiercely, they fastened the saint with nails to a board and tore at her body with tridents. The governor himself, unable to bear the horror of these tortures, hid his face in his hands. But the holy martyr remained unyielding. 


Unknown artist
ST. MARINA BEATING THE DEVIL, 2nd half 20th century
Oil on wood panel. Executed on a gold ground. Four selected saints on the borders
45.2 x 35.3 cm
Private collection

Unknown artist
St Margaret of Antioch
I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Thrown for the night into prison, While she was in prison she was tormented by demons, but drove them away by her prayers. For this reason she is especially invoked for deliverance from demonic possession. She was granted heavenly aid and healed of her wounds. 


Master of Round Cobourg
Detal: They stripped her and tied her to a tree, Late 15th century
 16.8 x 38.6 cm | 6.6 x 15.2 inches
Strasbourg Altarpiece of Sainte Marguerite, Dijon France French
I have no further description of this artwork at this time

They stripped her and tied her to a tree, then burned the martyr with fire. Barely alive, the martyr prayed: “Lord, You have granted me to go through fire for Your Name, grant me also to go through the water of holy Baptism.”


Master of Round Cobourg
Detal: The governor gave orders to drown Sainte Marguerite in a large cauldron, Late 15th century
22 x 32.1 cm | 8.7 x 12.6 inches 
Strasbourg Altarpiece of Sainte Marguerite, Dijon France French
I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Hearing the word “water”, the governor gave orders to drown the saint in a large cauldron. The martyr besought the Lord that this manner of execution should become for her holy Baptism. 


Cristoforo Roncalli
The Coronation of Saint Margaret of Antioch
Oil on canvas
46.7/8 x 33¼ in. (110.9 x 84.5 cm.)
Private collection

Cristoforo Roncalli (c. 1552–1626) was an Italian mannerist painter. He was one of the three painters known as Pomarancio or "Il Pomarancio.

Roncalli was born in Pomarance, a town near Volterra. His training occurred in Tuscany, and around 1578, he relocated to Rome.

Most of his fresco work was in Rome, though he worked for a decade in Loreto (1605–1615), where he decorated the New Sacristy. In Rome he decorated the cupola of the church of Santa Maria di Loreto and of San Silvestro in Capite. He helped decorate Santa Maria in Vallicella for the Oratory of San Filippo Neri. He also painted for the Oratory of Santissimo Crocifisso, the Baptism of Constantine and St. Simon in the transept of San Giovanni in Laterano, and designed the mosaics in the Cappella Clementina in the St. Peter's Basilica. One of his pupils from Siena was Alessandro Casolano, and his son Ilario Casolano.


Roncalli was named a Cavaliere of Christ in 1607. He died in Rome in 1626. More on Cristoforo Roncalli

When they plunged her into the water, there suddenly shone a light, and a snow-white dove came down from Heaven, bearing in its beak a golden crown. The fetters put upon Saint Marina came apart by themselves. The martyr stood up in the fount of Baptism glorifying the Holy Trinity. Saint Marina emerged from the fount completely healed, without any trace of burns. Amazed at this miracle, the people glorified the True God, and many came to believe. 


Master of Round Cobourg
Detal: Martyr Marina was beheaded, Late 15th century
22 x 32.1 cm | 8.7 x 12.6 inches 
Strasbourg Altarpiece of Sainte Marguerite, Dijon France French
I have no further description of this artwork at this time

This brought the governor into a rage, and he gave orders to kill anyone who might confess the Name of Christ. 15,000 Christians perished there, and the holy Martyr Marina was beheaded. The sufferings of the Great Martyr Marina were described by an eyewitness of the event, named Theotimos. More on Greatmartyr Marina

Master of Round Cobourg
History of the martyrdom of Saint Marguerite.
Arrest, prison, flogging, before the prefect .
 Strasbourg Altarpiece of Sainte Marguerite
Dijon Musée des Beaux Arts





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