Saint Barbara
1520
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1520
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Saint Barbara is a 1520 unspecified by Master of the Holy Blood, a Renaissance work, depicting Brug, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This painting shows Saint Barbara with a book and a ring. She's dressed in nice clothes and has a calm face. The story behind her is interesting - she was beaten with leather thongs that turned into peacock feathers. The artist included these details to tell her story. The painting was once part of a bigger piece with other panels. It's not clear who the artist was, but they're named after a painting in a chapel. You can learn more about this style by looking at the work of the artist Master of the Holy Blood (Netherlandish).
Saint Barbara holds both a book and a ring symbolizing her scholarly pursuits and union with God. According to legend, the leather thongs with which she was beaten were transformed into peacock plumes. This painting and one other in the collection (1942.633.1) were originally the wings of an altarpiece flanking a central panel, now lost, that may have depicted the Holy Family. The identity of this artist is unknown, but he is named for a painting in the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges. Bruges flourished as an international commercial center through the 1400s and early 1500s. Among its…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Master of the Holy Blood (active 1510–1520) was an Early Netherlandish painter, whose workshop was located in Bruges (Belgium).
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