Master of the Transfiguration of Syracuse
The Virgin Enthroned with Saints: Detail, St. Lucy

By the mid-15th century when this altarpiece was painted it had become common to use a pair of eyes as St. Lucy's attribute, but the older use of a flaming lamp for this purpose continued for some time. This detail from the altarpiece omits St. Lucy's most common attribute, a pair of eyes. The judge Paschasius had his men slit her throat, so the knife is also a way of identifying her.

Like most virgin martyrs in Italian painting, Lucy is a blonde (strawberry blonde in this case). The crown is another, somewhat less indispensible, feature in portraits of this type.

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• Iconography of St. Lucy
• The Transfiguration Altarpiece
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Photographed at the Palazzo Bellomo by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.