''Saint Eulalia'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...

on canvas in the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

style, created in 1885 by English artist

John William Waterhouse John William Waterhouse (6 April 184910 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their dep ...

, depicting the aftermath of the death of

Eulalia of Mérida Eulalia of Mérida (Augusta Emerita in 292 - Augusta Emerita 10 December, 304) was a young Roman Christian martyred in Augusta Emerita, the capital of Lusitania (modern Mérida, Spain), during the Persecution of Christians under Diocletian. O ...

. It is currently housed at

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...

History

A very daring composition, this is one of Waterhouse's most unusual, and consequently most striking, oil paintings. The corpse is dramatically foreshortened, and the snow contrasts with that of Eulalia's naked flesh – the 12-year-old girl seems singularly out of place for a Waterhouse picture. His choice of configuration – situating the corpse across the front and leaving so much of the central canvas unoccupied – was risky but it worked: by placing all the background figures in the distance, he concentrated the viewer's gaze on the naked body. The nudity was also groundbreaking for Waterhouse – and something that could have laid him open to criticism – but his sensitive handling of the subject, the youth of the saint, and the historical context of the painting allowed him to escape the critics' pen. The eye is also led to the murdered girl by the angle of the Roman guard's spear, pointing to the ropes that had bound her to the stake. According to legend, the snow was believed to have been sent by God as a shroud to cover the saint's nakedness; the dove, seen flying upwards near the crowd of mourners, is indicative of Eulalia's soul rising to Heaven, having flown out of her mouth.Quoted by Waterhouse in the exhibition catalogue (se
Tate's entry
. Cf. also Blackburn and Holford-Strevens: ''Oxford Book of Days'', entry for 10 December.

References

John William Waterhouse - Saint Eulalia - Study

External links

''St Eulalia'' at Tate''St Eulalia''
at JohnWaterhouse.com.
John William Waterhouse.net

John William Waterhouse (The Art and Life of JW Waterhouse)John William Waterhouse (Comprehensive Painting Gallery)John William Waterhouse Style and TechniqueWaterhouse at Tate Britain

from catholicforum {{DEFAULTSORT:Eulalia Saint Eulalia Saint Eulalia Ante-Nicene Christian martyrs Paintings of saints Christian art about death Saint Eulalia Collection of the Tate galleries Birds in art

History

See also

References

Further reading

External links