Sacred and Legendary Art Volume . 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...and one of his finest prints, is the Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, and that the two headless figures on the ground represent Valerian and Tiburtius. There exists a woodcut of the same composition, executed before the death of Raphael (about 1517), inscribed ' The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, ' which seems to set the question at rest. In the later examples she is generally kneeling, and the executioner seizes her by the long hair and prepares to plunge his sword into her bosom; the organ is in the background, a violin and a book lie near her, and an angel descends from above with the wreath of roses: as in a much-praised picture by Riminaldi, painted for the chapel of St. Cecilia at Pisa.1 The composition by Poussin is very fine and dramatic. Cecilia has received her death-wound, and is dying on the marble floor of her palace, supported in the arms of her women; St. Urban and others stand by lamenting. Here, as well as in Domenichino's fresco, two women are occupied in wiping up the blood which flows from her wounds. The introduction of this disagreeable and superfluous incident may be accounted for by the tradition that the napkin stained with her blood was found in the catacombs at her feet, 1 Florence, Pitti PaL The Martyrdom of St. Cecilia, by Lionello Spada, in the San Michele-in-Bosco at Bologna, is much praised by Lanzi. She is exposed to the flames in her bath: --1 con un fuoco cosi vero e vivace che in solo mirando rende colore.' It is now scarcely visible. In the Munich Gallery is a half-length St. Cecilia attributed to Leonardo, but not by him; which rather reminded me, in dress and arrangement, of the Giovanna d'Arragona in the Louvre. The life of St. Cecilia treated as a series affords a number of beautiful and dramatic subjects. There are several exampl...