Saint Agatha
Dublin Core
Title
Saint Agatha
Description
oil and tempera on canvas
Painted surface H: 25 1/4 x W: 19 13/16 in. (64.2 x 50.3 cm)
Painted surface H: 25 1/4 x W: 19 13/16 in. (64.2 x 50.3 cm)
Creator
Francesco Furini
Source
Walters Art Museum
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/34385/st-agatha/
https://art.thewalters.org/detail/34385/st-agatha/
Date
c. 1635-45
Contributor
This devotional image shows the saint contemplating God while tenderly holding the pincers, the instruments of her sufferings through which she achieved her sanctity. The palm branch is the attribute of martyrs. The way in which the saint is modeled with soft sfumato (an almost invisible rendering of the transitions from light to shade) and emerges from a dark background is characteristic of Furini's work.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 307, p. 435.
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, prior to 1881 [mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 59; 1897 catalogue: no. 119]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 307, p. 435.
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, prior to 1881 [mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 59; 1897 catalogue: no. 119]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Collection
Citation
Francesco Furini, “Saint Agatha,” European Mastectomy, accessed May 24, 2026, https://european-mastectomy.artinterp.org/items/show/151.