Unidentified Virgin Martyr [St. Cecilia(?)] Ceramic Tree Decoration

To the best of our knowledge, this female saint has not been identified with absolute certainty. At least three identities of which we are aware have been proposed: St. Dorothy of Caesarea (died c. 311), St. Lioba of Bischofsheim (c. 710-782), and St. Cecilia of Rome (died c. 230). In our considered opinion, the likeliest candidate is St. Cecilia. On her lap, the saint holds a golden crown of martyrdom. However, her other headdress is far more distinctive and telling. The figure’s hair should be envisioned as parted down the middle and arranged in the shape of two horn-shaped rolls. The hair is then wound round with fabric. Experts in 15th-century Flemish headwear have categorized wraps such as worn here as exotic and not worn in everyday life. St. Cecilia is often shown wearing a turban in art not because she was of Middle Eastern heritage—she lived and died a denizen of Rome—but because musicians were considered out-of-the-ordinary. And, while we have not been able to independently verify St. Cecilia’s association with bells in Northern Renaissance art as yet, at least one writer has opined that bells were a northern substitute for the musical instruments popular in her representations in contemporary Italian art. Finally, it should be noted that the octagonal upper stage of the Bruges Belfry, added between 1483 and 1487, had just been completed at the time this artwork was painted. What better time to give St. Cecilia a church bell as her musical attribute? + Feast of St. Cecilia: November 22 + Image Credit (M 070): Detail of Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.