Collection: St. Margaret of Cortona

ARTIST: Museum Religious Art Classics

ARTWORK NARRATIVE:

Artist: Gaspare Traversi – c. 1758

Margaret of Cortona, a thirteenth-century nun, was canonized in 1728. She is shown wearing the habit of a Franciscan Tertiary, holding a crucifix, and gazing into the face of an angel who has appeared to her holding a crown of thorns. In the background, Satan, who had attempted to persuade her to return to her former sinful life, flees into the fire of Hell. The dog is Margaret of Cortona's attribute, and the child is her illegitimate son. Traversi presents the saint as a peasant, in the modest interior of her simple house.

Her feast day is February 22.