St. Agatha. Francesco Furini
The early Christian martyr St. Agatha was pursued by the consular official of Sicily. She refused him, and the tortures to which he submitted her included cutting off her breasts. They were restored though the divine intervention of St. Peter. This devotional image shows the saint contemplating God while tenderly holding the pincers, the instruments of her sufferings through which she achieved her sanctity. The palm branch is the attribute of martyrs. The way in which the saint is modeled with soft sfumato (an almost invisible rendering of the transitions from light to shade) and emerges from a dark background is characteristic of Furini's work.
Date between circa 1635 and circa 1645
Medium oil and tempera on canvas
Dimensions Painted surface Height: 64.2 cm (25.3 in). Width: 50.3 cm (19.8 in).
Walters Art Museum
Accession number 37.1839
Florence, Italy
Object history
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, prior to 1881 [mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 59
1897 catalogue: no. 119]
1902: purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore
1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history Saints and Their Symbols. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1985-1986.
Credit line Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
References Federico Zeri (1976) (in English) Italian paintings in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore: Walters Art Gallery, no. 307, pp. 435 OCLC: 2463997.
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