Sicilian early Christian martyrs, Saint Agatha and Saint Lucy, display the instruments used by their Roman torturers as well as the gruesome results of their mutilation. Late 1300s or early 1400s fresco in the Chiesa di San Francesco, Lucignano, Tuscany, Italy.
Lucignano, Val di Chiana, Tuscany, Italy: two young Sicilian women martyred for their Christian beliefs by the Romans, Saint Agatha and Saint Lucy, display the torture instruments used by their persecutors, as well as the gruesome results of their mutilation, in this beautiful early Renaissance fresco in the Chiesa di San Francesco (Church of St. Francis) in Piazza del Tribunale. St. Agatha of Sicily or Santa Agata (left), was martyred in Catania, Sicily, in about 251 AD. As in other depictions, she holds a golden dish bearing her amputated breasts as well as the shears or pincers used to excise them. St. Lucy or Santa Lucia (right), martyred around 304 AD in Syracuse, holds her eyes, gouged out by her tormenters, as well as the sword they then drove into her throat to kill her. St. Agatha is the patron saint of rape victims and breast cancer patients and is invoked in prayers for victims of fire. St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and is venerated as a protector of eyesight. The artwork is not signed, but most of the frescoes in the church are by two artists born in Siena. Bartolo di Fredi (c. 1330-1410) and Taddeo di Bartolo (c. 1363-1422) were influential members of the Sienese School of artists and their surviving artworks can be found in many Tuscan churches and monasteries. At Lucignano, Bartolo di Fredi executed a grim but powerful Triumph of Death fresco and both men painted Biblical artworks and scenes from the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Parts of some frescoes were accidentally lost when 17th century builders inserted a doorway and altars through the layers of plaster and whitewash that by then obscured them. The frescoes were rediscovered in the 19th century, the plaster was removed and the paintings were carefully restored. The work to reveal their full beauty was completed in 1985.
Size: 2832px × 4256px
Location: Chiesa di San Francesco, Piazza Tribunale, Lucignano, Val di Chiana, Tuscany, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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