Gospel. Origen, on reading the letter of St. Barbara, rejoiced greatly; he wrote to her with his own hand, and sent to her one of his disciples, disguised as a physician, who perfected her conversion, and she received baptism from his hands. "Her father, Dioscorus, who was violently opposed to the Christians, was at this time absent: but previous to his departure he had sent skilful architects to construct within the tower a bath-chamber of wonderful splendor. One day St. Barbara descended from her turret to view the progress of the workmen; and seeing that they had constructed two windows, commanded them to insert a third. They hesitated to obey her, saying, We are afraid to depart from the orders we have received.' But she answered, Do as I command: ye shall be held guiltless.' When her father returned he was displeased; and he said to his daughter, Why hast thou done this thing, and inserted three windows instead of two?' and she answered, Know, my father, that through three windows doth the soul receive light, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and the Three are One.' Then her father, being enraged, drew his sword to kill her, and she fled from him to the summit of the tower, and he pursued her; but by angels she was wrapt from his view, and carried to a distance. A shepherd betrayed her by pointing silently to the place of her concealment; and her father dragged her thence by the hair, and beat her, and shut her up in a dungeon; - all the love he formerly felt for his daughter being changed into unrelenting fury and indignation when he found she was a Christian. He denounced her to the proconsul Marcian, who was a cruel persecutor of the Christians: the proconsul, after vainly endeavoring to persuade her to sacrifice to his false gods, ordered her to be scourged and tortured horribly; but St. Barbara only prayed for courage to endure what was inflicted, rejoicing to suffer for Christ's sake. Her father, seeing no hope of her yielding, carried her to a certain mountain near the city, drew his sword, and cut off her head with his own hands; but as he descended the mountain, there came on a most fearful tempest, with thunder and lightning, and fire fell upon this cruel father and consumed him utterly, so that not a vestige of him remained." * In the devotional pictures, St. Barbara bears the sword and palm in common with other martyrs; when she wears the diadem, it is as martyr, not as princess : she has also the book, and is often reading, in allusion to her studious life; but her peculiar, almost invariable, attribute is the tower, generally with three windows, in allusion to the legend. St. Barbara, as protectress against thunder and lightning, fire-arms, and gunpowder, is also invoked against sudden death; for it was believed that those who devoted themselves to her should not die impenitent, nor without having first received the holy sacraments. She therefore carries the sacramental cup and wafer, and is the only female saint who bears this attribute. She is usually dressed with great magnificence, and almost always in red drapery. The tower is often a massy building in the background, and she holds the sword in one hand, and the Gospel or palm in the other occasionally, in early pictures, and early German prints, she holds a little tower in her hand, merely as a distinguishing attribute; or she is leaning on it as a pedestal. In a beautiful picture of the Van Eyck school which I saw in the Museum at Rouen, representing the Virgin and Child throned in the midst of female saints, St. Barbara is seated on the left of the Madonna, bending over a book, and wearing on her head a rich and tasteful diadem of gems and gold, the front of which is worked into the form of a triple tower. I have seen the tower modelled in gold, suspended in a golden chain from her girdle. I have seen several pictures of St. Barbara in which she holds a feather in her hand; generally a peacock's Legenda Aurea. feather. I have never met with any explanation of this attribute; and am inclined to believe, as it is only found in the German pictures, that it refers to an old German version of her legend, which relates that when St. Barbara was scourged by her father, the angels changed the rods into feathers. The expression of the head varies with the fancy of the painter; but in the best pictures, at least in all those that aspire to character, the countenance and attitude convey the idea of thoughtfulness, dignity, and power. Luini, in a fresco group in the Brera, where she stands opposite to St. Antony, has given her this expression of "umiltà superba." Domenichino has given her this look, with large lustrous eyes, full of inspiration. 1. The most beautiful of the single figures to which I can refer is the chef-d'œuvre of Palma Vecchio, placed over the altar of St. Barbara in the church of Santa Maria Formosa at Venice. She is standing in a majestic attitude, looking upwards with inspired eyes, and an expression like a Pallas. She wears a tunic or robe of a rich, warm brown, with a mantle of crimson; and a white veil is twisted in her diadem and among the tresses of her pale golden hair: the whole picture is one glow of color, life, and beauty; I never saw a combination of expression and color at once so soft, so sober, and so splendid. Cannon are at her feet, and her tower is seen behind.* Beneath, in front of the altar, is a marble bas-relief of her martyrdom; she lies headless on the ground, and fire from heaven destroys the executioners. There is a very fine single figure of St. Barbara holding her cup and wafer, by Ghirlandajo.† *This is the most celebrated of the numerous portraits of Violante Palma, Titian's first love, according to the well-known tradition, and whose beautiful face and form are to be traced in some of his early pictures, as well as those of Palma and Giorgione. Her portrait by Giorgione is in the Manfrini Palace; she is holding a guitar. Her portrait by her father is at Dresden; and her portrait by Titian, as Flora, in the Florence Gallery. ↑ Berlin Gal. 2. Almost equal in beauty, but quite in the German style, is a full length by Holbein in the Munich Gallery. 3. Matteo da Siena. (1479.) Enthroned as patron saint, she holds in her left hand a tower, within the door of which is seen the cup and wafer; her right hand holds the palm, and two angels, bearing a crown, hover above her head; two other angels with musical instruments are at her feet; on the right of St. Barbara stands St. Catherine, and on the left St. Mary Magdalene.* 4. Cosimo Roselli. St. Barbara, holding the tower in one hand, in the other the palm, stands upon her father, who is literally sprawling on the ground under her feet; on one side stands St. John the Baptist, on the other St. Matthias the apostle. This is a strange, disagreeable picture, very characteristic of the eccentric painter but for the introduction of the tower, I should have taken it for a St. Catherine trampling on the Emperor Maximin. 5. Michael Coxis. St. Barbara is represented holding a feather in her hand. In two pictures (old German) it is distinctly a white ostrich feather; in others, it is a peacock's feather. In a Madonna picture by Vander Goes the Virgin is seated with the Child on her knee; two angels crown her; on the right, St. Catherine, with the sword and part of the wheel lying before her, presents an apple to the Infant Christ; on the left is St. Barbara with a book on her knee, and holding a peacock's feather in her hand. The whole exquisite for finish, and beauty of workmanship.‡ It is usual in a sacred group (Sacra Conversazione) to find St. Catherine and St. Barbara in companionship, particularly in German Art; and then it is clear to me that they represent the two powers which in the middle ages divided the Christian world between them. St. Catherine appears as the patroness of schoolmen, of theological learning, study, and seclusion; St. * Siena, San Domenico. † Fl. Acad. Barbara as patroness of the knight and the man-atarms, of fortitude and active courage. Or, in other words, they represent the active and the contemplative life, so often contrasted in the medieval works of art.* There is a beautiful and well-known drawing by J. Van Eyck, in which St. Barbara is seated in front, with outspread ample drapery and long fair hair flowing over her shoulders. Behind her is a magnificent Gothic tower, of most elaborate architecture, on which a number of masons and builders are employed. St. Barbara is frequently introduced into pictures of the throned Madonna. The most celebrated example is the "Madonna di San Sisto" of Raphael, in which she is kneeling to the left of the Virgin; on the other side is St. Sixtus. The expression in the two saints is admirably discriminated. St. Sixtus implores the Virgin in favor of the brotherhood for whom the picture was painted; St. Barbara requires for the Virgin the devotions of the faithful. I have already observed that, where saints are grouped together, the usual pendant of St. Barbara is St. Catherine, unless there are special reasons for introducing some other personage, -as in this instance: the picture having been painted for the monastery of San Sisto at Piacenza. Historical pictures of St. Barbara are confined to few subjects. 1. In a small ancient picture, evidently part of a predella, St. Barbara with two female attendants is seen standing before a tower, which has a drawbridge let down over a moat; she seems about to enter; several masons are at work building the tower. In the other half of the picture, she is lying in a shrine hung with votive offerings, and the crippled and the sick appear before it as suppliants. 2. Pinturicchio, large fresco in the Vatican. In the centre the mystical tower: on one side, she is flying from her father; on the other. the wall opens, and she * Legends of the Madonna. |