Polyptych of Saint Barbara (Palma Vecchio)

[1] Her robe of brown and her flowing mantle of red infold her form,[1] a white veil is twisted among the tresses of her golden hair,[1] she holds in her hand a palm branch, symbolic of victory,[2] and on her head she wears a royal diadem or crown emblematic of her martyrdom.

[6] Palma has painted at her feet on either side a cannon, and behind her, outlined against the sky, the fortress tower in which she was said to have been imprisoned by her father, who ordered her to be shut up within its walls that her beauty might not attract suitors.

The Golden Legend relates that while thus confined she was converted to Christianity by a disciple of the learned Origen, who, disguised as a physician, came at her request to instruct her in the tenets of the new faith, reports of which had reached her ears.

After her baptism, she requested to have three windows made in her tower in recognition of the Trinity, but her father, in his anger at this acknowledgment of her belief, would have killed her with his sword had not angels concealed her and borne her to a place of safety.

"[3] And in the opinion of one of Vasari's editors, Palma, in this altarpiece, "left a picture which for completeness, dignity, decorative feeling, and depth of colour may be ranked with the great masterpieces of the Venetian school.

They spring upward like the lines of some graceful lily, from a point beneath the feet of the saint, now in almost symmetrical pairs, outlining the hips and the shoulders, now in playful reversed curves, tangent to these or crossing them at the most agreeable angles.