Lives of the Saints
Wednesday, May 21st, 2008
Probably the most fun part of art for me is recognizing the people in the paintings/sculptures/any medium. In the past, when art used to be commissioned by either the wealthy patrons of self-portraiture or scenes from the Bible, characters were generally easy to recognize by their symbols. Some characters are popular and become identifiable by individual characteristics. For instance, St. Jerome is never seen without a lion by him, usually sleeping to demonstrate domesticity. St. Sebastian (here painted by Andrea Mantegna) who is less fortunate, is always pictured pierced by many arrows and tied to a tree (though historically, he survived this first chance of martyrdom, and was killed much later when beaten by club and thrown into a Roman version of a toilet).
Some characters are easy to spot by their place in the frame – Madonna and Child would always be in the middle. Others need a calling card. St. Lucy, a patron saint against blindness, is best known for carrying a dish that holds her own eyes. This particular version has Lucy holding her eyes on some sort of stalk.
If you know of any good or weird saints, definitely comment!