The Martyrdom of Saint Mennas

Look for the basket near the saint. The pliers in it are for taking his eyes out, and the sword belongs to the man who has hold of him. Neither has been used yet. Menas was an Egyptian soldier, martyred in the year 296 under the emperor Diocletian and later taken up as the patron of the Copts, the Egyptian church. Veronese painted him around 1580 with his arms thrown open and his eyes raised, refusing the pagan idol set up at the left, which is what gets him beheaded. The whole arrangement came out of a picture he had already made, the Martyrdom of Saint George for the church of San Giorgio in Braida in Verona, his home town. That is where the pagan altar and the faces of several of the figures come from.