#1: Saint Quentin from Virgin and Child Flanked by Sts Benedict and Quentin by Francesco Marmitta, from the 1st quarter of the 16th century. (The painting was formerly attributed to a painter by the surname Bianchi)
In his work Certains (Certain Artists in the English translation) 1889, French art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans describes Saint Quentin as an: ‘ephebe’ with an uncertain gender, a hybrid of mysterious beaut.
“His long brown locks torrenting over an iron armored bust […] And what to make of that adorable face whose features have been veiled by an unquenchable sorrow? What to make of those clear eyes, whose blue color seems to be fading… as if covered by mud? — These are not the penitent and pure eyes of St Benedict, clear and cold like fresh spring water. These eyes burn to be led into temptations that will ultimately cause downfall. These pupils of troubled waters, when they calm they reflect back the rusty-brown color of the autumn sky. These are belligerent pupils that are hardly subdued by the feeling of remorse/penitence after a sin. The saint’s appearance alone is mesmerizing. These boyish features, this slightly developed hips, this girlish neck with flesh as pale as elderberry flowers, cunning predatory lips, slim waist, provocative fingers resting upon his weapon, the bulge in the breastplate which swells in the place of breasts and protects the exposed sloping of the bust, that piece of cloth exposed from under the armpit (between shoulder pad and gorget), even the blue ribbon tied onto him that a girl child would wear are haunting. All frantic assimilations of Sodom came together to create this androgyne, whose insinuating beauty (now sore) had already emerged as purified, as if transfigured by the deliberate approach of a God. […] A hermaphrodite armed in iron, a knight who’s consumed by lust and suffers under the weight of his sorrow.”
Certains, 222-225
