St. Agnes

6th century
Mosaic
Detail from the procession of female saints on the left wall of the nave in Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna

Like the other saints, Agnes brings her martyr's crown to present to the Virgin and Child at the east (presbytery) end of the wall. Her name is given above the tree on the left: S[AN]C[T]A AGNES. This is one of the earliest examples of the saint's being accompanied by a lamb; the others in the procession do not have attributes.

The lamb's pose echoes images of the lamb as Christ, such as this one on the right on a sarcophagus from the same period in Ravenna. Thus the lamb is not only a pun on the saint's name but a reference to her devotion to Christ.

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View of the entire left wall.
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Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.