ST. VERONICA.

Ital. Santa Veronica. Fr. Sainte Véronique.

The festival of St. Veronica (La Sainte Face de J. C.) is held on Shrove Tuesday.

Ir is an ancient tradition, that when our Saviour was on his way to Calvary, bearing his cross, he passed by the door of a compassionate woman, who, beholding the drops of agony on his brow, wiped his face with a napkin, or as others say, with her veil, and the features of Christ remained miraculously impressed upon the linen. To this image was given the name of Vera Icon, the true image, and the cloth itself was styled the Sudarium (Ital. Il Sudario; Fr. Le Saint Suaire). All the stories relative to the sudarium belong properly to the legendary life of Christ; I shall therefore only observe here, that the name given to the image was insensibly transferred to the woman of whom the legend is related. The active imagination of the people invented a story for her, according to which she was Veronica or Berenice, the niece of King Herod, being the daughter of his sister Salome, who had been devoted to the pomps and vanities of the world, but, on witnessing the suffering and meekness of the Saviour, was suddenly converted. The miraculous power of the sacred image impressed upon her napkin being universally recognized, she was sent for by the Emperor Tiberius to cure him of a mortal malady. But the wicked emperor having already breathed his last, she remained at Rome in company with St. Peter and St. Paul, until she suffered martyrdom under Nero; or, according to another legend, she came to Europe in the same vessel with Lazarus and Mary Magdalene, and suffered martyrdom either in Provence or Aquitaine. I think it unnecessary to enter further into these legends, which have been rejected by the Church since the eleventh

century. But the memory of the compassionate woman, and the legend of the miraculous image, continue to be blended in the imaginations of the people. In the ancient pictures of the procession to Calvary, St. Veronica is seldom omitted.

The devotional figures always represent her as displaying the sacred handkerchief. Sometimes, in allusion to the legend, she is standing between St. Peter and St. Paul, as in a picture by Ugo da Carpi in the sacristy of the Vatican; and in a woodcut by Albert Dürer, very fine and solemn. Sometimes the miraculous image is of colossal proportions; as in a very curious old picture in the Boisserée Gallery. In St. Peter's at Rome, one of the chapels under the dome is dedicated to St. Veronica. An ancient image of our Saviour, painted on linen, and styled the Vera Icon,* is regarded by the people as the veritable napkin of St. Veronica, and is exhibited among the relics of the church. In this chapel the mosaic over the altar, after a design by Andrea Sacchi, represents the Saviour sinking under the weight of the cross, and St. Veronica kneeling beside him in white. It is a simple, elegant composition, very matter of fact, and not in the least either mysterious or poetical.

Those

I have now done with the Roman Martyrs. which follow here are honored principally in the north of Italy, and their effigies are to be found in the works of Art in Tuscany, Lombardy, and Venice. I have added those few French and Spanish saints who have a general interest in connection with Art, either because their celebrity has been widely diffused, or because of the beauty and importance of those productions in which they have been represented.

* Whence it is supposed that the name of Veronica is derived.

MARTYRS OF TUSCANY, LOMBARDY,

SPAIN, AND FRANCE.

HE early Martyrs, who figure almost exclusively in pictures of the Tuscan schools, are rather curious as subjects of ancient Art, than either interesting or celebrated.

ST. REPARATA was for six hundred years (from 680 to 1298) the chief patroness of Florence. According to the old Florentine legend, she was a virgin of Cesarea in the province of Cappadocia, and bravely suffered a cruel martyrdom in the persecution under Decius, when only twelve years old. She was, after many tortures, beheaded by the sword; and as she fell dead, her pure spirit was seen to issue from her mouth in form of a dove, which winged its way to heaven.

The Duomo at Florence was formerly dedicated to St. Reparata; but about 1298 she appears to have been deposed from her dignity as sole patroness; the city was placed under the immediate tutelage of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist, and the church of St. Reparata was dedicated anew under the title of Santa Mariadel-Fiore.

I have never seen any representation of Santa Reparata except in the old Florentine pictures. In these she is frequently introduced standing alone or near the Madonna, bearing the crown and palm as martyr, and sometimes also a banner, on which is a red cross on a white ground.

In a picture by Angelo Gaddi she wears a green robe, and bears the crown, book, and banner. In another ancient Florentine picture she is in a white robe and red mantle, with the same attributes. In a grand composition of Fra Bartolomeo, representing the Madonna surrounded by many saints, and especially the protectors of Florence, St. Reparata, who is on the left of the Virgin, bears the palm, and leans her hand on the book. She is sometimes represented standing with St. Ansano, the patron of Siena, as in a picture by Simone Memmi.* Such pictures, I apprehend, must have been painted when Florence and Siena were at peace. It is difficult to distinguish St. Reparata from St. Ursula, unless where the latter saint bears her javelin: where there is a doubt, and the picture is undeniably Florentine, the locality and the traditions must be consulted.

Another saint, who is sometimes represented in the old Florentine pictures, is St. Verdiana (A. D. 1222), usually dressed as a Vallombrosian nun, but she did not belong to any order. She is represented with serpents feeding from her basket.

Who, that remembers Florence, does not remember well the SAN MINIATO-IN-MONTE towering on its lofty eminence above the city, and visible along the Lung' Arno from the Ponte alle Grazie to the Ponte alla Carraja? and the enchanting views of the valley of the Arno as seen from the marble steps of the ancient church? and the old dismantled fortress defended by Michael Angelo against the Medici? - and the long avenue of cypresses and the declivities robed in vineyards and olive grounds between the gate of San Miniato and the lofty heights above? But for the old saint himself, he has fared not much better than St. Repa

rata.

According to the Florentine legend, St. Minias or

* All the above pictures are in the Florence Gallery.

Miniato was an Armenian prince serving in the Roman army under Decius. Being denounced as a Christian, he was brought before the emperor, who was then encamped upon a hill outside the gates of Florence, and who ordered him to be thrown to the beasts in the Amphitheatre. A panther was let loose upon him, but when he called upon our Lord he was delivered; he then suffered the usual torments, being cast into a boiling caldron, and afterwards suspended to a gallows, stoned, and shot with javelins; but in his agony an angel descended to comfort him, and clothed him in a garment of light finally he was beheaded. His martyrdom is placed in the year 254.

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There is a town bearing his name half-way between Florence and Pisa, celebrated as the birthplace of Francesco Sforza, and the first seat of the Buonaparte family.

Effigies of this saint are confined to Tuscany; all those I have seen are in his church near Florence, never having visited the cathedral at San-Miniato. He is represented in the attire of a prince, with a scarlet robe, a golden crown, one or two javelins in his hand, a lily and a palm; and is thus exhibited in a very old picture of the Giotto school, with his life in eight small compartments painted around the principal figure.

The Greek mosaic in the choir of his church (eleventh century), represents him as standing on one side of Christ (the Virgin and St. John on the other); he wears the regal crown and mantle, and holds the Greek An old fresco, engraved in the "Etruria Pittrice," represents him with similar attributes.

cross.

ST. ANSANO appears only in the pictures of the ancient Siena school. He was, until the end of the thirteenth century, the chief patron of the city of Siena; but his popularity has waned before that of the modern patrons, St. Bernardino and St. Catherine.

Ansanus Tranquillinus was the son of a noble Roman. His nurse, Maxima, a Christian woman, caused