St Catherine of Alexandria

St Catherine of Alexandria

50x50 cm

Giclée print on canvas
2012

model: Tara Byakko

Also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius.

The emperor condemned Catherine to death on the spiked breaking wheel, an instrument of torture. The wheel was miraculously destroyed, however, in answer to St. Catherine's prayer, and so Maxentius had to settle for beheading her.

In art  She can usually be easily recognised as she is crowned, as befits her rank as a princess, and often holds a segment of her wheel or a sword as an attribute.

Valentina

Valentina

42x60 cm

Digital painting
2012

Emily

Emily

42x60 cm

Digital painting
2012

Kalliope

Kalliope

42x60 cm

Digital painting
2012

Charlie

Charlie

42x60 cm

Digital painting
2012

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