08 works, Today, December 31st, is Columba of Sens' day, her story, illustrated #363

Giovanni Baronzio, (–1362)

Stories from the life of St. Columba, 1345-1350 circa

Tempera on wood

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan , Italy

Giovanni Baronzio, also known as Giovanni da Rimini, (died before 1362), was an Italian painter who was active in Romagna and the Marche region during the second quarter of the 14th century. Giovanni Baronzio was the eminent representative of the second generation of painters of the school of Rimini. More on Giovanni Baronzio

Columba was born to a noble pagan family in Zaragoza, the northwestern region of Spain. Her original name was probably Eporita, and she was a member of a very influential noble family. Her relatives worshiped the old deities and didn't follow the new religion. Members of her family were some of the most important people related to the Roman Empire. 

Columba fled as a child to Vienne, France and was baptized, receiving the name Columba, meaning "dove" in French. She left Spain for France because she had been told it was where "a more beautiful religion flourished" and because she "had an insurmountable horror of idols", and to avoid being denounced as a Christian. Columba continued to Sens, near Paris in north-central France, where she was martyred in 273.

Pellegrino da San Daniele, (1467–1547)

Detail; Santa Colomba

Parish church of Osoppo,  Province of Udine in the Italy

Madonna with Child enthroned among Saints Peter, Colomba, John the Baptist, Ermacora, Magdalene, Giacomo, Stefano, Sebastiano and five musician angels

Pellegrino da San Daniele (1467–1547) was an Italian painter in the late-Quattrocento and Renaissance styles, active in the Friulian region.

Born at San Daniele del Friuli, he is also known as Martino da Udine. He completed frescoes in the church of San Antonio in the town of San Daniele. He later was strongly influenced by Il Pordenone. Among his pupils were Luca Monverde, Girolamo da Udine, and Sebastiano Florigerio. More on Pellegrino da San Daniele

Specialists in the lives of saints suggest that Columba of Sens is the same woman as Columba of Spain, who lived during the 9th century AD. Columba of Spain is known as the patron saint of witches, a curious notion in and of itself. On the one hand, she acts as an intercessor on behalf of witches, while on the other hand, people go to her to defend themselves against witches.

Giovanni Baronzio, (1343 circa - 1362)

Detail; Colomba before the Emperor, c. 1340s

Tempera on wood

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan , Italy

See above for Giovanni Baronzio

Aurelian, the Roman emperor (270-275), passed through Sens and put all the Christians there to death. "Alone, Columba found favour in his eyes, such was the nobility and the beauty of her features revealing her high origin". He wanted her to marry his son, but she refused, so he locked her up in a brothel in the town amphitheater. 

Giovanni Baronzio, (1343 circa - 1362)

Detail; St Colomba Saved by a Bear, c. 1340s

Tempera on wood

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan , Italy

See above for Giovanni Baronzio

Jacques Callot,

St Columba watching a guard being attacked by a bear, in an amphitheater, c. 1632-1635
Etching

British Museum

Jacques Callot, (born March–August 1592, Nancy, France—died March 24, 1635, Nancy), French printmaker who was one of the first great artists to practice the graphic arts exclusively. His innovative series of prints documenting the horrors of war greatly influenced the socially conscious artists of the 19th and 20th centuries.

He learned the technique of engraving in Rome. About 1612 he went to Florence. At that time Medici patronage expended itself almost exclusively in feste, quasi-dramatic pageants, sometimes dealing in allegorical subjects, and Callot was employed to make pictorial records of these mannered, sophisticated entertainments. He succeeded in evolving a naturalistic style while preserving the artificiality of the occasion, organizing a composition as if it were a stage setting and reducing the figures to a tiny scale, each one indicated by the fewest possible strokes. This required a very fine etching technique. His breadth of observation, his lively figure style, and his skill in assembling a large, jostling crowd secured for his etchings a lasting popular influence all over Europe.

He illustrated sacred books, made a series of plates of the Apostles, and visited Paris to etch animated maps of the sieges of La Rochelle and the Île de Ré. In his last great series of etchings, the “small” (1632) and the “large” (1633) The Miseries and Misfortunes of War, he brought his documentary genius to bear on the atrocities of the Thirty Years’ War. Callot is also well known for his landscape drawings in line and wash and for his quick figure studies in chalk. More on Jacques Callot

 Antonio Tempesta

Sts Columba and Mustiola, c. 1570-1591
Etching

Height: 73 millimetres, Width: 118 millimetres

British Museum

Sts Columba and Mustiola; St Mustiola at centre hanging from a frame by her hands tied above her head, and with a stone tied to her feet, with a torturer standing to right scourging her; behind to left, St Columba praying with a bear behind her.

Antonio Tempesta (1555 – 5 August 1630) was an Italian painter and engraver, whose art acted as a point of connection between Baroque Rome and the culture of Antwerp.

He was born and trained in Florence and painted in a variety of styles, influenced to some degree by "Counter-Maniera" or Counter-Mannerism. He enrolled in the Florentine Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in 1576. He was a pupil of Santi di Tito, then of the Flemish painter Joannes Stradanus. He was part of the large team of artists working under Giorgio Vasari on the interior decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence.

His favourite subjects were battles, cavalcades, and processions. He relocated to Rome, where he associated with artists from the Habsburg Netherlands, which may have led to his facility with landscape painting. More Antonio Tempesta

While Columba was imprisoned, someone tried to rape her, but she was saved by a she-bear. Aurelian was furious and decided to burn the animal and Columba together, but the bear escaped and survived, while a "provincial rain put out the fire". Columba was condemned to death and beheaded near a fountain named d'Azon. Her body was left on the ground after she was killed, but a man named Aubertus, who had prayed to her for the restoration of his sight, took care of her burial.

Giovanni Baronzio, (1343 circa - 1362)

Detail; Beheading of St Colomba c. 1340s

Tempera on wood

Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan , Italy

The Galician version of the legend about the saint says that St Columba was a witch who met Jesus Christ on the road. He told her that she would not enter his kingdom, so she decided to change her life. However, it seems that she remained a witch while being a Christian. This was a common mixture in the early times of Christianity.

Unknown artist

Santa Columba of Spain, Century XVIII

 Arceniega (Álava, Spain)

During the first centuries of Christianity and even medieval times, it was quite common for women who were witches to try to enter safe places like monasteries. These witches weren't what the newly growing religion wanted them to be. They were well educated women, who knew about nature and had skills to help and heal. With the appearance of the new monotheistic religion the tradition of witchcraft lost its place. Many of these women wanted to continue cultivating the ancient wisdom no matter what, so they joined safe places where they could plant their herbs and spend time with books – in the convents of the nuns. More on Columba of Sens

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