Jacques Bellange

Jacques Bellange depicts the death of St. Lucy, a martyr in Sicily during the reign of Diocletian in the 3rd century. Denounced as a Christian by her fiancé, Lucy refused to recant and survived many tortures, only to be killed with a dagger plunged through her throat. The statue on the left represents Diana holding an enflamed vase, which refers to “lux” or “light” (the root of the name Lucy). Although Bellange shows the moment of the saint’s martyrdom, the swaying hips and fanciful costumes of the closely packed figures around her compete for our attention. Bellange’s playful treatment of the subject went against recent calls by the Catholic Church for clarity and gravity in religious imagery. The court painter for the Duke of Lorraine until his death in 1616, Bellange produced figure types and costumes that surely influenced Callot, although Callot rarely leads us astray from a central narrative focus.