Detail of The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara by Cranach in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2007

The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara
ca. 1510


Object Details

Artist: Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, Kronach 1472–1553 Weimar)

Date: ca. 1510

Medium: Oil on linden

Dimensions: Overall 60 3/8 x 54 1/4 in. (153.4 x 137.8 cm); painted surface 59 3/8 x 53 1/8 in. (150.8 x 134.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1957

Accession Number: 57.22


According to legend, Saint Barbara was executed by her heathen father, Dioscorus, when she refused to recant her Christian faith. Luxuriously dressed, she seems here to calmly accept her fate as she kneels before Dioscorus, who raises his sword to behead her. The four sinister-looking witnesses may be the Roman authorities who had tortured her in an attempt to persuade her to sacrifice to pagan gods, and who later sentenced her to death.
The coat of arms indicates that Cranach painted this panel for a member of the Rem family, who were wealthy merchants in Augsburg.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436039