Martyrdom of Saint Justina

A sword, and a unicorn

Justina of Padua is given two signs and they could not be less alike. The first is a sword through the breast, the instrument the legend supplies for her death, and it belongs to the largest family of attributes in Christian art — the tool that killed the saint, held by the saint afterwards. The second is a unicorn, which is an emblem of her city's association rather than an event in her life, and which functions as a badge. One names the person; the other names where she is venerated.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1575 and gives the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy as its location. Its dimensions are 103 x 113 cm, close to square. It is filed under group portraiture, Religion, cultural heritage in both headings, and Fantasy, with Mannerism Late Renaissance as the style and Italian as the nationality; the measured colour families are brown and red.

One entry, one name

Hers is the only title in this catalogue that contains the name Justina. That scarcity is not a judgement on the picture; it reflects how the attribute system distributes attention, favouring saints whose signs are portable and unmistakable over saints whose identification depends on a local cult. The Fantasy heading on the entry is doing straightforward work — an index that records what a picture contains needs somewhere to file an animal that does not exist.