3-098-230 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saint Lucy, 1st third of the 16th century. A full-length depiction of Christian martyr St Lucy, wearing a golden-yellow tunic and a long red cloak which falls from her shoulders to the floor in stiff folds. A white veil covers her head, revealing only the roots of her hair, and a golden halo surrounds her. She carries in her right hand a golden plate with two eyes, and in her left a palm frond, attribute of her martyrdom during the Diocletianic Persecution. Absent in the early narratives and traditions, at least until the fifteenth century, is the story of Lucia tortured by eye-gouging. In some accounts, Paschasius, the Governor of Syracuse, ordered her eyes to be removed. In other versions, Lucy took her own eyes out in order to discourage a persistent suitor who admired them. When her body was prepared for burial in the family mausoleum it was discovered that her eyes had been miraculously restored. This is one of the reasons that Lucy is the patron saint of those with eye illnesses. Her name means "she who carries light". This work was likely created by a member of the circle of the painter Juan de Borgoña.