A woman with her hands raised in horror or submission. Detail of 1300s fresco in the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, a Romanesque church on the Lake Como waterfront at Gravedona, Lombardy, Italy. The whole painting depicts the woman finding her husband, Julian, stabbing his sleeping parents to death in the belief that the couple lying in bed were his wife and a lover. Julian was granted absolution and redeemed himself by founding hospitals for the poor, prompting his canonisation as St Julian the Hospitaller. He is the patron saint of reformed murderers.
Gravedona, Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy: a wife returning from church throws her hands up in horror as she witnesses her husband stabbing his parents to death while they lie in bed, in this detail of a late 14th fresco in the north apse of the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Tiglio, a 12th century Romanesque church on the Lago di Como waterfront. Her husband Julian, later canonised as Saint Julian the Hospitaller, was said to have murdered his mother and father on his return from a hunting trip in the belief the couple lying in his bed were his wife and a lover - but in killing them, he fulfilled a curse laid on him at birth by pagan witches. Full of remorse, Julian travelled with his wife to Rome to seek absolution, and on gaining it, redeemed himself by founding hospitals and inns for the poor and needy. St Julian is the patron saint of pilgrims, travellers, innkeepers, childless couples, boatmen - and even of reformed murderers. Other frescoes surviving from the 1300s and 1400s inside the church include St Christopher carrying the Christ Child, the Adoration of the Magi and a superb early 14th century Last Judgement. It also houses a masterpiece of Lombard Romanesque sculpture, a 12th century Crucifixion carved from poplar wood. 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 Roman times. 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: 4044px × 2686px
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, absolution, art, bed, birth, century, chiesa, christian, church, como, costume, curse, cursed, , del, di, dress, ed, face, faces, fashion, female, founded, fresco, frescoes, gravedona, hands, horrified, horror, hospitaller, hospitals, identity, inns, italian, italy, julian, kerr, lake, lombard, lombardia, lombardic, lombards, lombardy, maria, mary, medieval, mistaken, murder, murdering, northern, pagan, painting, paintings, parents, penitence, portrait, portraits, province, raised, redemption, saint, santa, shock, shocked, st, stabbing, terence, tiglio, uniti, wall, wife, witches, witness, woman, women
