Early Christian virgin martyr, Saint Susanna of Rome. Fresco painted in the late 1300s in the north apse of the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, at Gravedona, Lombardy, Italy. According to medieval legend, Santa Susanna was beheaded around 295 AD for refusing to marry a pagan relative of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and for converting two of his officials to Christianity.
Gravedona, Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy: late 14th century frescoes in the north apse of the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, a 12th century Romanesque church on the northwest shore of the Lago di Como, include this depiction of the early Christian virgin martyr, Saint Susanna of Rome. According to medieval legend, Santa Susanna was beheaded around 295 AD for refusing to marry a pagan relative of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and for converting two of his officials to Christianity. Other late 14th century frescoes in the north apse include Sant’Anna Metterza (the Virgin Mary and Christ Child with Saint Anne, mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus), and a dramatic depiction of the wife of St Julian the Hospitaller throwing her hands up in horror as her husband stabs his parents as they sleep. The murder was an act of mistaken identity for which Julian was absolved and then canonised for his penitent foundation of hospitals and inns for the poor. The lakeside land occupied by Santa Maria del Tiglio and the adjoining parish church of San Vincenzo is believed to have been a sacred site from at least the Roman era. The first Christian building, a baptistery dedicated to St John the Baptist, was probably built on the site of a pagan temple. The two churches both incorporate re-used ancient materials, including a Roman altar and a fragment of 5th century Roman floor mosaic.
Size: 2848px × 4288px
Location: Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, Gravedona, Lombardy, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1300s, 14th, apse, art, catholic, century, chiesa, christian, christianity, church, como, , damaged, del, di, diocletian, district, dress, early, ed, emperor, empire, face, faces, fashion, female, fresco, frescoes, gown, gravedona, grey, iconography, italian, italy, kerr, lago, lake, lakeside, late, lombard, lombardia, lombardic, lombardy, long, maria, marry, martyr, martyrs, mary, mediaeval, medieval, north, northern, pagan, painting, persecution, pre-renaissance, province, refused, religious, roman, rome, saint, saints, santa, st, susanna, terence, tiglio, uniti, virgin, wall, woman, women
