The Martyrdom Of St Ursula – (Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)) ◄ ankstesnis Kitas ►

Menininkas: Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi)

stilius: Baroque

Tematika: Saints Scenes

technika: Oil

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610), is a painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610). It is owned by the Intesa Sanpaolo Bank. The holy Ursula, accompanied by eleven thousand virgins, was captured by the Huns. The eleven thousand virgins were slaughtered, but the king of the Huns was overcome by Ursula's modesty and beauty and begged her forgiveness if only she would marry him. Ursula replied that she would not, upon which the king transfixed her with an arrow. Saint Ursula was done in 1610 in Naples for Marcantonio Doria, a twenty-five year old nobleman from Genoa. Doria had become an ardent collector of Caravaggio's work, and he commissioned the painting to mark the entry of his stepdaughter into a religious order as Sister Ursula. The date of the painting can be located at shortly prior to 11 May 1610, when Doria's agent in Naples wrote to his master that the painting was finished. There had been a slight accident, the agent wrote, when he had tried to hasten the drying by leaving it out in the sun the day before, softening the varnish. The agent told Doria not to worry as he would take it back to Caravaggio to be fixed and, in fact, Doria should commission more works from the artist as "people are fighting over him and this is a good chance." It was received in Genoa on 18 June and Doria was delighted, placing it with his Raphaels and Leonardos and his vial of the authentic blood of John the Baptist.