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  Paintings
of martyred saints were also popular during the early seventeenth century.
These compelling and often gruesome images of religious suffering provided
examples of those who had sacrificed their lives for their Christian faith.
Jusepe de Ribera’s Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew (1634) focuses
on the saint’s final moments. One of Christ’s first apostles,
he was condemned to death after destroying pagan temples and idols. He
looks up to heaven as if seeking the support and strength of God, while
the executioner sharpens his knife before skinning the saint alive. In
the background are two figures, possibly the pagan priest who condemned
him and the soldier who captured him. Bartholomew’s body is lit by
a bright, unrelenting light, which defines the forms of his muscles and
the texture of his wrinkled skin, reminding the viewer of his imminent
torture. The light could also be seen as a metaphor for the light of God:
the saint looks toward the source of the light as if it were the agent
of divine inspiration and salvation.
 Similar
expressions of piety and ecstasy are found in Tanzio da Varallo’s
painting of Saint Sebastian, 1620-1630. An officer of the Praetorian
guard, Sebastian was condemned to death by the Emperor Diocletian when
the secret of his Christianity was discovered. He was shot with arrows
and left to die, but was discovered by Irene, the widow of a Christian
martyr, who washed his wounds and nursed him back to health. Sebastian
would later be clubbed to death, but the arrow remained the symbol of
his martyrdom. The painting shows Irene supporting Sebastian’s body,
while an angel carefully extracts an arrow from his chest. Early accounts
of Sebastian’s legend omitted this episode, but it became increasingly
popular in seventeenth-century paintings. Not only did Irene’s good
deed provide a model of charity, her physical proximity to the suffering
of a martyred saint also made her an ideal subject for mystical contemplation.
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