Cleveland Museum of Art

Saint Margaret

Antonello Gaggini

Date

c. 1520–1530

Medium

marble

Culture

Italy, Sicily, Palermo, 16th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Gaggini was a member of a large family of sculptors whose Palermo workshop supplied monumental religious sculptures for the cathedrals of Palermo and Messina in Sicily and Montelione in Calabria. After 1507 Antonello himself worked for 15 years to produce marble sculptures for Palermo Cathedral. This figure of the legendary virgin martyr, Saint Margaret, was probably commissioned for one of these ecclesiastical foundations, possibly the chancel of Palermo Cathedral. The saint is shown reading from a book of hours (a sign of her piety) and trampling upon a dragon, the symbol of Satan. The dragon became the attribute by which she is recognized in sacred art.

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