Di Pietro, Niccolò. Saint Ursula and Her Maidens. 1410, tempera on wood, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Saint Ursula and Her Maidens by Niccolò di Pietro, a late Gothic artist from Venice, was done in 1410. Niccolò di Pietro used tempera and gold on wood to depict Saint Ursula in what I believe to be is a royal and majestic light. The bright pastel shades and gold create a delicate, powerful, regal, and feminine air. As most gothic paintings, there is no spatial dimension but the maidens are layered and face many directions which translates a vague sense of movement. The painting if split in half would show to be perfectly symmetrical, with six maidens on each side and Saint Ursula dominantly presented in the center. Legend says St. Ursula was a British princess who was murdered during her return from a pilgrimage. In refusal of giving up her body sexually to invaders, she was brutally martyred.Â
