Wilhelm Borremans, St. Apollonia

1717
Fresco
Church of Santa Maria dell'Ammiraglio

This is one of a number of head-and-shoulders portraits of female saints that Borremans painted for the vault at the entrance to the nave (Santoro, 52-55). St. Apollonia is shown with a tooth in the tooth-extractor that is her attribute. Although a martyr, she is not shown with a palm branch. The apparent bulge in her right cheek may refer to her being the patron saint of those with toothaches.

It is common in Italian art to picture virgin martyrs as blondes. Borremans does the same for his portraits of St. Euphemia and St. Rosalia.

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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.