Barbara Longhi’s Saint Justina of Padua: Pagan Symbolism and Christian Martyrology

Abstract

skillfully created small devotional altarpieces depicting holy saints with their respective attributes of martyrdom, seen in Saint Agnes of Rome (c. 291-304) with an ewe, Saint Cecilia (c. 200-235) with a portable organ, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 287-304) with a broken spiked wheel, and Saint Justina of Padua (c. 3rd century) with a small sword in her chest. For their physical sacrifice, Heaven rewarded them with a palm frond as an honorific spiritual gift. Barbara included some of these saints in her paintings on the theme of holy conversation ( sacra conversazione ; a religious gathering with the Madonna and Child) and depicted the female saints as a single panel—solo image—for private devotion or supplicatory assistance. Most of the biographies and historicity about the lives of these saints are recounted by Jacobus de Voragine (1222-1298), Archbishop of Genoa, in his Golden Legend ( Legenda Aurea , 1275). This essay only comments on the iconography of one of Barbara’s female saints, Saint Justina of Padua .