Saint Lucy

Francesco da Cotignola's Saint Lucy, painted around 1515 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, depicts one of the most beloved virgin-martyrs of the early Church — Lucy of Syracuse, who was martyred under Diocletian and whose name, derived from the Latin lux (light), made her a patron of the blind and those with eye ailments. Lucy is typically shown holding her eyes on a plate, referencing the legend that her eyes were gouged out before her execution, though they were miraculously restored. Francesco, active in Ravenna and the Emilia-Romagna region, produced altarpiece figures and devotional panels of this kind throughout his career. The Metropolitan's acquisition documents the broad market for Italian Renaissance devotional images.

The standing saint is presented with her distinctive attribute — the plate bearing her eyes — identifying her for devotional purposes. Francesco's Venetian-influenced Emilian style gives the figure warm color and soft atmospheric modeling. The saint's dignified bearing and clear attribute make her immediately legible to the devout viewer.