The Martyrdom of St Agatha

Author: Surya Stemerding

St Agatha was one of the earliest Christian saints. She lived in Catania on Sicily (c.231-251 AD) and was a victim of persecution during the three-year reign of the Roman emperor Decius. A local Roman governor seized his chance to force her to become his mistress, and took his revenge when she refused. She rebuffed all his attempts to get her to renounce her faith, and after being brutally tortured she died of her wounds.

This drawing depicts the moment when two torturers wield two huge pairs of shears to cut off her breasts, as she gazes up in despair at her left hand, which is bound to the branch of a tree. An angel is flying down from heaven to give her a palm branch, the attribute of every Christian martyr. That detail is a reference to her rapid canonization only a year after her death, making her one of the first Christian martyrs.^[1] Agatha’s attribute as a saint are her breasts, which are usually displayed on a salver.

A print was made after this drawing in 1567 by Cornelis Cort (c.1533-1578), a Dutch engraver who worked in Rome from 1566 until his death in 1578.^[2] The drawing, which is reversed in relation to the print, is highly detailed and has no trace of any underdrawing. It has also been indented for transfer to a copperplate of the same size. There are also minor changes between drawing and print, which would not be the case with a copy after a print. The landscape in the background and foreground of the print was worked up in greater detail, with the addition of a church and a fortress in a vista to the right of the saint. The background contains only some buildings and a river. In the print Agatha’s mouth is open in a scream of anguish, while in the drawing it is closed as a sign of her acceptance of her fate.^[3]

Since the inventor’s name is not mentioned on the print, the attribution of the design to Clovio must be of a later date. The drawing and print were auctioned together in 1878 as the work of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), on the evidence of the Mannerist style. However, Kukuljevic-Sakcinski had already ascribed the design to Clovio in 1858, but since his Croatian publication was barely known abroad his authority was restricted to his home market.^[4] Clovio’s authorship of the design is now generally accepted, and so, automatically, is that of the print.