The Martyrdom of Saint Apollonia depicts an actual event that took place in the year 249. Apollonia, refusing to renounce Christanity, was martyred during the reign of the Emperor Philip. Under a colonnaded portico, one executioner pulls the Virgin Martyr backward by her hair as another tears out her tongue with pincers. The Emperor and his armed guards look on at the right of the scene, and two more armed soldiers stand to the left. In the background is a rugged and mountainous landscape.

This is a predella panel for a larger altarpiece which would have had multiple scenes from St. Apollonia's life. Alone, this does not have context. There is a Benedictine Convent for St. Apollonia in Florence. Was this painted for that convent? (Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Curator of Italian and Spanish Paintings, National Gallery of Art, Washington, September 29, 2022)

A box of Xrays of the Kress Collection is on Shelf G in the Vault (6/5/2018).

Samuel Kress Collection (K1003) 1936. On loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 1939-1961. Donated by the Kress Foundation to Pomona College in 1961.

National Gallery of Art, Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture (Washington D.C., 1941).

This object has the following keywords:

• Christianity
• Kress
• Martyrdom
• Persecution
• Royalty and Rulers
• Saint Apollonia
• Soldiers
• Torture

• Sight Dimensions: 8 5/16 x 20 1/2 in. (21.11 x 52.07 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen
• Frame Dimensions: 13 1/4 x 25 5/16 in. (33.66 x 64.29 cm) Measured by Hudson, Karen

This object is a member of the following portfolios: