ALTICHIERO da Zevio
(b. ca. 1330, Zevio, d. ca. 1390, Verona)

The Funeral of St Lucy

1378-84
Fresco, 237 x 290 cm
Oratorio di San Giorgio, Padua

The first Lucy scene in the lower register shows the steadfastness of the saint before the judge Paschasius, the second and unsuccessful attempt to have her brought to a brothel with a team of oxen. These scenes are followed by the martyrdom of the saint, and the concluding scene is her burial.

In the scene of The Funeral of St Lucy the backdrop is a lavishly designed sacred building - the church that was erected over the tomb of the saint, according to the Golden Legend. Numerous citizens dressed in contemporary garb are present at the funeral ceremony, and some of their faced have unmistakably portrait-like features. This applies particularly to the figures in the left half of the image, among whom Giovanni de' Lupi, the brother of Bonifacio, and Giovanni Dondi, the famous doctor who was an intimate friend of Petrarch, are to be recognized.




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