Saint Barbara

Juan Simón Gutiérrez [Attributed]

• CE00078
• Second half of the 17th century
• Oil on canvas

Saint Barbara appears in this work crowned with roses. In her left arm, she holds the tower in which her father Dioscorus locked her up until his return with an appropriate suitor for her to marry. Barbara embraced Christianity during her imprisonment and opened up an additional window besides the tower’s existing ones as a symbol of the Holy Trinity. She holds the martyr’s palm in her right hand because when Barbara chose Christ as her husband, her father ordered her to be judged prior to her martyrdom. The sentence was death by beheading, which he himself would carry out. However, as Jacopo da Varazze’s Golden Legend recounts, in a surprise turn of events, a bolt of lightning struck Dioscorus, burning him to death. For this reason, St. Barbara is the patron saint of storms.