Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 5

1504 · Oratory of St Cecilia, San Giacomo Maggiore, Bologna

religious

Scene 5 of the Cecilia cycle in the Oratory of St Cecilia, painted by Amico Aspertini, depicts the martyrdom of Valerian and his brother Tiburtius. The prefect Turcius Almachius summons them for questioning, in the course of which they confess their new Christian faith. In the foreground the prefect and his retainers have gathered at the foot of a tall column supporting a statue of Jupiter somewhere outside of Rome.

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Legend of Sts Cecilia and Valerian, Scene 5

About the Artist

Amico Aspertini

1475 – 1552

Italian Mannerist painter from Bologna, where he was a pupil of Francia. Vasari describes him as having an eccentric personality and this comes out in his paintings, which are often bizarre in expression, like the Holy Family with Saints (St. Nicolas aux Champs, Paris). Aspetini was in Rome 1500-03 and his sketchbooks of Roman remains (British Museum, London) are important sources about contemporary knowledge of the antique.

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