Le Martyre de saint Janvier dans l'amphithéâtre de Pouzzoles

By the 1630s Artemisia Gentileschi had settled in Naples, and this was one of three large canvases she was asked to paint for the choir of the cathedral in nearby Pozzuoli. It shows a famous local martyr, Januarius, the saint the Neapolitans call San Gennaro, whose dried blood is still said to turn liquid in Naples a few times each year. Here he stands in the town's old Roman amphitheatre, condemned to the wild animals. The lion and the bear, instead of tearing him apart, drop to his feet as gently as pets. Public commissions on this scale rarely went to a woman, and Artemisia took it on with help. Painters from her circle laid in the crowd and the arena behind the calm central figure.