Saint Barbara (left) and Saint Margherita or Margaret of Cortona depicted in damaged Renaissance fresco, painted in 1512, on west front of deconsecrated Cappella di San Grato (Chapel of St Gratus) in Via Jean-Baptiste De Tillier in the historic centre of Aosta, regional capital of the Valle d’Aosta in northwest Italy. Saint Barbara holds a three-windowed tower. The tower symbolises Barbara’s imprisonment by her father. The three windows - which she ordered be inserted in her prison - symbolise the Holy Trinity.
Aosta, Valle d’Aosta, Italy: Saint Barbara (left) holds one of her saintly attributes, a three-windowed tower with a conical roof, while Saint Margherita or Margaret of Cortona (right), prays with a crucifix between her fingers, in this detail of a fresco painted in April 1512 on the west front of the deconsecrated former Cappella di San Grato or Chapel of St Gratus in the historic centre of this regional capital city. The damaged fresco is part of a wider artwork over the 13th century chapel’s round-arched entrance that also depicts saints Catherine of Alexandria and Nicholas of Bari on the other side of a Madonna with Child Enthroned. A panel aded later to the facade features St Gratus holding the head of St John the Baptist, intent on preventing a hailstorm and driving away two small demons. The chapel, in Via Jean-Baptiste De Tillier, was closed for worship in the 1700s and sold in 1781 to the Aosta fire brigade, which used it to store tools used in emergencies. The west front frescoes were partly destroyed when the entrance was widened to allow the passage of fire pumps. In the 1800s, the building was occupied by a tailor and it had a shop window against the facade. The frescoes inside and out were plastered over, but were uncovered and restored in the 1990s. The former chapel has been owned since 1998 by the Municipality of Aosta and is used to host temporary exhibitions.
Size: 3887px × 2613px
Location: Cappella di San Grato, Via Jean-Baptiste De Tillier, Aosta, Valle d'Aosta, Italy.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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