Currently not on view
Saint Martina Refuses to Adore the Idols,
1654–60
Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini), Italian, 1596 - 1669
1998-38
As principe of the Academy of Saint Luke, the artists’ association, Cortona undertook excavations beneath the Academy’s church, Santi Luca e Martina, beside the Roman Forum, and discovered Martina’s relics. He guarded them overnight and became devoted to her.
This painting was apparently offered to Cardinal Barberini in thanks for donations to refurbish Santi Luca e Martina. The saint kneels on a pile of instruments of martyrdom—a clawed rake to rip her flesh and the pyre on which the Romans tried to burn her. The idol to which she refused to sacrifice and the tripod for the sacrifice are toppled by lightning, to the pagans’ consternation. The sword used for her beheading lies ready on the ground.
This painting was apparently offered to Cardinal Barberini in thanks for donations to refurbish Santi Luca e Martina. The saint kneels on a pile of instruments of martyrdom—a clawed rake to rip her flesh and the pyre on which the Romans tried to burn her. The idol to which she refused to sacrifice and the tripod for the sacrifice are toppled by lightning, to the pagans’ consternation. The sword used for her beheading lies ready on the ground.
Information
Title
Saint Martina Refuses to Adore the Idols
Dates
1654–60
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
104 × 86 cm (40 15/16 × 33 7/8 in.)
frame: 130.2 × 111.8 × 6.7 cm (51 1/4 × 44 × 2 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921, Fund
Object Number
1998-38
Culture
Type
Subject
Cardinal Francesco Seniore Barberini, Rome (?until 1679; by descent to Carlo Barberini); ?Cardinal Carlo Barberini, Rome (until 1704; possibly no. 335 in inventory of 1690s; by descent to Francesco Giuniore Barberini); ?Cardinal Francesco Giuniore Barberini, Rome (until 1738; possibly no. 239 in inventory of 1738/1739); private collection, Florence (1920s); private collection, Ohio (before 1998); Studio Novo Limited, London (in 1998; sold to Princeton University Art Museum).
- Guiliano Briganti, Pietro da Cortona, o, Della pittura barocca, (Firenze: Sansoni, 1982)., pp. 222, 287
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1998," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 58, no. 1/2 (1999): p. 86-123., p. 86, p. 87 (illus.)
- Jörg Martin Merz, ""Saint Martina Refuses to Adore the Idols:" Pietro da Cortona's painting at Princeton in context," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): p. 84–104., p. 84, fig. 1
- Norman E. Muller, "Technical note," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 62 (2003): 105., p. 105, fig. 1
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), p. 349
- Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 121
