Saint Agatha

The Musée Fabre in Montpellier holds one of the two versions Francisco de Zurbarán painted of Saint Agatha, a young woman from Catania martyred during the persecution of Decius. According to the hagiographic tradition recorded in the Golden Legend, she rejected the advances of Quintianus, proconsul of Sicily, because she had vowed virginity. After suffering torture, including the cutting off of her breasts, she died in her hometown. Her cult was ancient and her name appeared in the canon of the Mass, yet in Counter-Reformation Spain she was rarely depicted, probably because of the delicate nature of her martyrdom. Still, the Mercedarian order and hospital convents asked for images of her, since she was invoked as a protector of breastfeeding, which gave the subject a certain demand.

The Montpellier canvas is usually dated to around 1635 and is thought, given its format and dimensions, to have possibly been paired with Saint Ferdinand, now in the Hermitage, within a single altarpiece. The saint stands and seems to walk, her head gently tilted towards her right shoulder. Her face, close in type to that of Saint Margaret, reflects the painter's habitual ideal of feminine beauty. The palette stands out: a dark blue-green bodice, bright yellow sleeves, a vermilion mantle knotted at the back and a plum-mauve skirt, all set against a dark background. The tenebrist lighting models the forms, and the treatment of the folds gives the figure solidity.

The other version, dated to about 1640-1645 and held in a private collection in Madrid, is known as a canvas that was enlarged on all four sides to show the saint full-length. A recent restoration has recovered its original three-quarter format, along with the ivory whites and the violet-pink of the mantle. Together, the two works show how Zurbarán handled the same subject with variations in format and colour, and they offer a representative example of his sensitivity to volume and light.

Painter

Francisco de Zurbarán

Date

1630

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

127 × 60 cm

Museum

Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Agatha of Sicily

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