The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara

Lucas Cranach the Elder

ca. 1510 · Oil on linden · European Paintings

According to legend, Saint Barbara was executed by her pagan father, Dioscorus, when she refused to recant her Christian faith. Luxuriously dressed, she seems here to calmly accept her fate as she kneels before Dioscorus, who raises his sword to behead her. The four sinister-looking witnesses may be the Roman authorities who had tortured her in an attempt to persuade her to sacrifice to pagan gods, and who later sentenced her to death. The coat of arms indicates that Cranach painted this panel for a member of the Rem family, who were wealthy merchants in Augsburg.

Artist

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Date

ca. 1510

Medium

Oil on linden

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1957