Pietro da Cortona, 'Saint Cecilia', 1620-5

Saint Cecilia, patron saint of musicians, sits serenely at a table, holding a palm – the symbol of her martyrdom – in one hand and a sheet of music in the other. On the left is a portable organ, on the right an angel leans on a harp and a third figure looms in the shadows, peering around a curtain. In the top right corner we can glimpse the upper parts of a classical temple emerging from behind some trees, a reminder that this saint lived in third-century Rome.

According to legend, Cecilia came from a Roman noble family. In spite of her vow to remain a virgin, her parents arranged for her to marry a young man named Valerian. On her wedding night, Cecilia told her new husband that she was protected by an angel who would kill him if he touched her. When Valerian demanded to see the angel, she sent him to be baptised by Pope Urban I. On his return, he found his wife with an angel, who gave her a crown of roses and him a crown of lilies: here Saint Cecilia is shown wearing a coronet of red and white roses in addition to her halo.

This picture is an early work by Pietro da Cortona, datable to before he became the principal painter of the powerful Barberini family. A painter, sculptor and architect, Cortona was one of the most influential and prolific figures of the Roman High Baroque. He was particularly admired for the extraordinary illusionistic effects he created in the large fresco schemes that decorated many of Rome’s churches and palaces. Saint Cecilia is one of a small number of works stylistically linked with his frescoes in the Palazzo Mattei in Rome, datable to shortly before 1624–5. The saint’s facial type and draperies are very close to those in the frescoes, as are the warm palette and fluid paint handling.

In the early 1620s, at around the time this picture was painted, Cortona was in contact with the antiquarian Cassiano dal Pozzo, secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Dal Pozzo became Cortona’s intellectual friend and mentor and encouraged him to study the sculpture and architecture of imperial Rome – Cortona’s early works include a profusion of classical architecture and other references, such as the temple seen in the background here.

Saint Cecilia was once thought to be by Domenichino, an attribution which goes back as far as the eighteenth century, when it was in the collection of a Scottish nobleman, Sir Robert Udny. The painting was later considered to be by an unknown Roman painter, but is now correctly attributed to Pietro da Cortona.