Martyrs exhibition

At the  PERFORMANCE SPACE GALLERY!

     

St Jeanne d'Arc

St Jeanne D'Arc

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Klara Murnau

St Edith Stein

St Edith Stein

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Ewelina Koscielniak

Saint Edith Stein (St Teresia Benedicta of the Cross), was a German Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church. Born into an observant Jewish family but an atheist by her teenage years, she converted to Christianity in 1922, was baptized into the Catholic Church and was received into the Discalced Carmelite Order as a postulant in 1934. Although she moved from Germany to the Netherlands to avoid Nazi persecution, in 1942 she was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died in the gas chamber.

St Lucia

St Lucia

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Ilaria 

With a name derived from lux, lucis "light", St Lucy is the patron saint of those who are blind.

Hagiography tells us that Lucy was a Christian during the Diocletian persecution.

She consecrated her virginity to God, refused to marry a pagan, and had her dowry distributed to the poor.

Her would-be husband denounced her as a Christian to the governor of Syracuse, Sicily. Miraculously unable to move her or burn her, the guards took out her eyes with a fork.

In another version, Lucy's would-be husband admired her eyes, so she tore them out and gave them to him, saying, "Now let me live to God".

In art, her eyes sometimes appear on a tray that she is holding.

Interview with Sinzine

Thanks Holly!

http://sinzine.com/component/k2/item/29-warning-severe-squelchy-knickers-time-ahead-the-art-of-matteo-alfonsi

St Apollonia

St Apollonia

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Amanda Papoyans

Saint Apollonia was one of a group of virgin martyrs who suffered in Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians prior to the persecution of Decius. According to legend, her torture included having all of her teeth violently pulled out or shattered. For this reason, she is popularly regarded as the patroness of dentistry and those suffering from toothache or other dental problems. in art, she is seen holding tongs.

St Agnese

St Agnese

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

inspired by a photo of Luca Elio Rimatori

http://www.lucaeliorimatori.com/

Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility.

The Prefect Sempronius wished Agnes to marry his son, and on Agnes' refusal he condemned her to death.
As Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins, Sempronius had a naked Agnes dragged through the streets to a brothel.
Various versions of the legend give different methods of escape from this predicament. In one, as she prayed, her hair grew and covered her body. It was also said that all of the men who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind.
When led out to die she was tied to a stake, but the bundle of wood would not burn, or the flames parted away from her, whereupon the officer in charge of the troops drew his sword and beheaded her, or, in some other texts, stabbed her in the throat.
Agnes is depicted in art with a lamb, as her name resembles the Latin word for "lamb", agnus.

St Filomena

St Filomena

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Amber Hall

Her veneration began in the early 19th century after the archaeological discovery in the Catacombs of Priscilla of the bones of a young woman, which were interpreted as those of a martyr. The loculus was closed with three terra cotta tiles, on which was the following inscription: lumena paxte cumfi. It was and is generally accepted that the tiles were in a wrong order and that the inscription originally read, with the leftmost tile placed on the right: pax tecum Filumena.

Filomena was the daughter of a king in Greece who, with his wife, had converted to Christianity. When the Emperor Diocletian threatened to make war on her father, he went with his family to Rome to ask for peace. The Emperor fell in love with the young Philomena and, when she refused to be his wife, he subjected her to a series of torments: scourging, from whose effects two angels cured her; drowning with an anchor attached to her, but two angels cut the rope and raised her to the river bank; being shot with arrows, but on the first occasion her wounds were healed, on the second the arrows turned aside, and on the third, they returned and killed six of the archers, and several of the others became Christians. Finally the Emperor had her decapitated. The two anchors, three arrows, the palm and the lily flower on the tiles found in the tomb were interpreted as symbols of her martyrdom.

St Crispina

St Crispina

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Laura

Saint Crispina was a martyr who suffered during the Diocletian

persecution. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the
proconsul; on being ordered to sacrifice to the gods she declared she
honoured only one God.
Her head was shaved at the command of the judge, and she was exposed
to public mockery, but she remained steadfast in the Faith. She was
then condemned to death and beheaded.

St Barbara

St Barbara

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2011

model: Charlie Buckitt

This portrait is especially done for an exhibition with the theme
"Martyrs" that will take place on Nov 2011 in London.
Saint Barbara is the patron saint of artillerymen, military engineers,
miners and others who work with explosives because of her old legend's
association with lightning.
She is invoked against thunder and lightning and all accidents arising
from explosions of gunpowder.
She is the patron of the Italian Navy and is also recognized as the
patron saint of U.S. Navy.
According to the hagiographies the whip used to torture her
miraculously became a peacock feather, so it became part of her
iconography.