02 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, December 19, is Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum's Day, With Footnotes - 149

Corrado Giaquinto

Martyrdom of Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax and Abacus, circa 1750 

Oil on canvas 

Height: 118 cm (46.46 in.), Width: 167 cm (65.75 in.) 

Musee Fesch - Ajaccio (France)

Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum (died 270) were, according to their largely legendary passio of the 6th century, four saints of the same family (a husband, his wife, and their two sons). They came from Persia to Rome, and were martyred in 270 for sympathizing with Christian martyrs and burying their bodies. Some ancient martyrologies place the date of their death between 268 and 270, during the reign of Claudius II, although there was no persecution of Christians during this time.

Their story relates how the family's assistance to Christians exposed them to persecution. They were seized and delivered to the judge Muscianus or Marcianus, who, unable to persuade them to abjure their faith, condemned them to various tortures. Despite the torture, the saints refused to abjure. Marius and his two sons were thus beheaded on the Via Cornelia, and their bodies were burnt. Martha meanwhile was killed at a place called in Nimpha or Nymphae Catabassi, thirteen miles from Rome. Tradition states that Martha was cast into a well. More on Saints Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum

Corrado Giaquinto was an Italian painter. He was apprenticed to Nicola Maria Rossi, then to Solimena. His spiritual master, however, was undoubtedly Luca Giordano. By the 1740s Giaquinto was the leading exponent of the Rococo school that flourished in Rome during the first half of the 18th century. Later he established himself as Europe's foremost fresco painter after Giambattista Tiepolo.

From 1753 to 1762, Giaquinto moved to Madrid where he achieved great academic honours as well as professional ones. In 1755 he frescoed the Royal Chapel in the Royal Palace, painted seven canvases for the Palace of Aranjuez, supplied further canvases for the Salesian convent in Madrid, and finally painted the famous frescoes in the Royal Palace depicting The Birth of the Sun in the Hall of the Columns, and Spain Saluting Religion and the Church on the staircase. Giaquinto had great influence on Spanish painters, particularly the young Goya.

In 1762 he returned to Naples where his work influenced Neapolitan artists. More on Corrado Giaquinto

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