Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; late seventeenth century.
"Santa Margherita".
Oil on copper.
It conserves frame of the XVII century of ebonized wood.
Measurements: 22 x 17 cm; 28 x 23 cm (frame).
Daughter of a pagan priest, Margaret, or Marina of Antioch, was converted to Catholicism thanks to the influence of her nurse, who fed her as a baby and taught her Christian beliefs. Convinced of her new faith, Margarita was baptized when she was 12 years old, provoking the rejection of her family. Estranged from her family, Marguerite devoted herself to herding sheep. When she was 15 years old, a Roman prefect fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. The young woman refused the offer because of her new faith. Her refusal to the prefect opened the way to martyrdom. At this point, the legend has created a series of fantastic images. The most striking was his confrontation with a dragon, which he defeated thanks to a cross he carried with him. The fight with this legendary animal was also related to the figure of St. George, so that on some occasions she was represented with a crown as if she were the princess of the legend of the saint. According to legend, Margarita survived all the martyrdoms to which she was subjected, so the Romans resorted to decapitation to finish her off. Her legend was declared apocryphal in 494 by Pope Gelasius I. During the Middle Ages her popularity spread thanks to the protection attributed to her for women in labor. In the process of childbirth, Saint Margaret was often invoked to protect mother and child.