Saint Apollonia

Author: Unknown

Date: ca 1540 – 1550

Material: Oil on chestnut

Dimensions (cm): H 110 x W 42

Provenance: Guimarães, Capela de Santa Luzia

Inventory No.: MAS P 45

Saint Apollonia is depicted standing, in a frontal position, the right leg in front of the left one and the face turned to the right side. In her right hand, she holds a palm and in the left one, there’s a closed book, on which a pair of tongs with a tooth is placed as symbol of her martyrdom.

According to Dalila Rodrigues, this painting and another one depicting Saint Catherine of Alexandria (MAS P 43) are works by the same painter and they were part of the same Renaissance altarpiece, as the repetition of the figurative model, where the backgrounds seem to set an almost contiguous visual space, seems to evidence. Given the several affinities concerning the forms and the style of pictorial execution that were adopted, she also holds there’s a common authorship for these two paintings and for the painting of the Pentecost (MAS PD 2), also displayed in this museum.