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.