Antonio Cicognara - Saint Lucy before the Judge, unable to be moved

Antonio Cicognara

Saint Lucy before the Judge, unable to be moved

Tempera on panel. 43 x 71 cm.

This panel depicts one of the miracles of St. Lucy, a saint who consecrated her life to Christ and refused to marry the man who had been arranged for her. Her bridegroom sued her for breaking her marriage vows, and the prefect ordered that she be taken to a brothel, but 1,000 men and a team of oxen could not move her. Later, the saint was to suffer martyrdom by having a sword thrust through her neck. Antonio Cicognara shows the young saint in the center of a city. To the left of her is the prefect with his arm outstretched, on the right in front of the rotunda, the men with a team of oxen struggle to move Lucy from the spot.
This painting is the central panel of a multi-part predella, from which two other scenes have survived. One is housed in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, and one in the Bernard Berenson Collection in the Villa I Tatti in Florence. The Boston panel depicts "St. Lucy with her mother praying at the tomb of St. Agatha", the Florentine panel depicts "Angels watching over the body of St. Lucy".
Antonio Cicognara worked as a panel painter and miniaturist in Cremona, Lombardy, between 1480 and 1516. His art was influenced by the painting of Milan and Ferrara of that era, but also by sculptures that he saw in Cremona. Three panels signed by Cicognara, including a Madonna and Child in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Ferrara, form the basis for the attribution of further works to his oeuvre.