Female saint with arched eyebrows and intense gaze. Remnant fresco, painted in the early 1500s. Inside the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, at Sirmione, Lombardy, Italy. The church, consecrated in 1512, is also known as Santa Maria della Neve.
Sirmione, Lombardy, Italy: a female saint with arched eyebrows and an intense gaze in a remnant of an early 16th century Lombardic fresco inside the Chiesa di Santa Maria Maggiore, the parish church of this historic town built on the Sirmio peninsula jutting into Lake Garda. Santa Maria Maggiore was begun in the late 1400s to replace the ancient church of San Martino in Castro, founded in the 7th century AD, with some remnants of that earlier building re-used in its construction. It was consecrated in 1512, and the Lombardic frescoes on its interior walls mostly date from that era. The church is also known as Santa Maria della Neve (St Mary of the Snow), a reference to a miraculous snowfall said to have occurred on the Esquiline hill in Rome on 5 August AD 352. Other ancient Roman connections include the northernmost column in the arched portico on the west front, a milestone dedicated to the 4th century emperor, Julian the Apostate, and, in the churchyard, a memorial stone dedicated to the Roman god Jupiter.
Size: 2498px × 2498px
Location: Sirmione, Lombardy, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1500s, 16th, arched, art, background, black, blue, brescia, catholic, century, chiesa, christian, christianity, church, , damaged, dark, della, di, direct, district, early, eyebrows, eyes, face, faces, female, format, fresco, frescoes, garda, gaze, intense, italian, italy, kerr, lago, lake, lakes, lombard, lombardic, lombards, lombardy, maggiore, maria, mary, mural, neve, northern, nun, painting, paintings, parish, peninsular, portrait, portraits, province, renaissance, roman, saint, saintly, saints, santa, sirmio, sirmione, snow, square, st, stare, staring, terence, viewer, wall
