Saint Margaret praying

Saint Margaret of Antioch, the virgin martyr who emerged from the belly of a dragon through the power of her faith, was among the most widely venerated saints of the medieval and Renaissance periods. By the time of this panel — attributed to 1550, which falls after Costa's death in 1535, suggesting either an attribution question or a later date for the painter — the saint's iconography was well-established: her attribute of the dragon and her prayer before martyrdom were the standard elements of her devotional image. The MuMa at Le Havre holds this work in a collection that includes significant Italian Renaissance holdings. Whether the work is by Costa himself or a follower, it reflects the continuing tradition of single-saint devotional painting that made half-length figures of this type staples of both domestic and institutional religious practice.

The half-length single-saint format focuses all compositional attention on the figure and her defining attributes. The dragon, symbol of the devil Margaret overcame through faith, appears at the lower edge of the composition as her principal identifying attribute. Costa's characteristic warm palette and clear figure definition give the saint's face a quality of calm devotional resolve appropriate to her historical moment of prayer before execution.