The letter ‘F’ before the name ‘Sebastianus’ in the signature shows that this work was painted in or after the year 1531, when Sebastiano del Piombo (‘Sebastiano of the Seal’) became the bearer of the papal seal and adopted the honorific title associated with that role: frate (friar). The painting of the lady’s dress and hair are well preserved although the flesh areas are now damaged and have a greyish appearance.

oil on canvas
92.4 × 75.3 cm
Signed]]> https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sebastiano-del-piombo-portrait-of-a-lady-with-the-attributes-of-saint-agatha
The Reverend William Holwell Carr
Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/people/the-reverend-william-holwell-carr]]> Location: Chiesa dei Santi del Crocifisso, Borgo]]> ]]>
Styling is reminiscent of an illustration of St Eufrasia in Giunta, La rapresentatione di santa Eufrasia composta per messer Castellano Castellani, 1558; illustrations for a play rather than for a meditational work. ]]> https://wellcomecollection.org/works/esvgb5c5]]> Engraving
Height: Height: 161 millimetres
Width: Width: 103 millimetres
Inscription type: inscription
Inscription content: Lettered on image with names of the martyrs and 'Vulneratis est...nostra. Isa. 53.5'; signed: 'Hieronymus Wierix fecit et excudit' 'Cum Gratia et Privilegio Buschere'..]]> acquired 1863
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1863-0509-641]]> Hollstein / Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts c.1450-1700 (1291.II)
Mauquoy-Hendrickx 1979 / Les Estampes des Wierix ... catalogue raisonné (1015)
Alvin 1866 / Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre des trois frères Jan, Jérome et Antoine Wierix (570)]]> Height 277 mm
Width 207 mm
watermark: Lamb in circle (45 x 47 mm, on P3 of 6P, vH, left), similar to Briquet 49 (with halo)(Florence 1511, Treviso 1514), similar to Piccard Online 86768 (Ferrara 1576)]]> https://www.boijmans.nl/en/collection/artworks/60531/the-martyrdom-of-st-agatha]]> Legaat / Bequest: Dr. J.C.J. Bierens de Haan 1951]]> SS. Agata e Margherita, Cremona, Italy]]> ]]> Painted surface H: 25 1/4 x W: 19 13/16 in. (64.2 x 50.3 cm)

]]> https://art.thewalters.org/detail/34385/st-agatha/]]>
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.]]>
superimposed on top is a tool from Scultetus treatise]]> Saint Agatha, Folio 179r

Agatha was punished for refusing the advances of the Roman governor. She is tied to a column and her breasts are removed by attackers wielding huge clippers ; one attacker raises his knee to brace himself in a pose like that in the Catherine cycle (Folio 17r), where the saint is tied to a column.]]> ]]> https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-queen-mary-psalter]]>