Terms and conditions of use
Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia
(1520-1525)
- Medium
- engraving
- Measurements
- 23.8 × 40.2 cm (image and sheet, trimmed within platemark)
- Place/s of Execution
- Rome, Italy
- Catalogue/s Raisonné
- Bartsch 117; Shoemaker & Broun 55
- Inscription
- printed in ink c.r.: RA• VR• IN / MAF (monogram)
- Accession Number
- 1278.660-3
- Departments
- International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1923
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest - Gallery location
- 14th - 16th Century Gallery - Painting & Decorative Arts
Level 1, NGV International - About this work
-
Identified in the sixteenth century as depicting the martyrdom of Saint Felicity, this engraving is now understood to show the martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, one of the most famous virgin martyrs of the early Christian church. Cecilia was boiled in a cauldron of oil and subsequently beheaded for inciting her husband to convert to Christianity to protect her virginity. Her husband and his brother were both martyred by beheading prior to Cecilia’s death. Marcantonio Raimondi was active solely as a printmaker, establishing a successful career engraving the designs of other artists, most famously those of Raphael.
