Master Francke
St. Barbara Altar: Detail, the fire torture

First half of 15th century
Kansallismuseo, Helsinki, Finland

The detail is from the right wing of the altarpiece. The scene is from the second day of Barbara's passion, when in Caxton's account she is "hanged between two forked trees [poles]" and tortured with fire. Her father, Dioscorus, stands before her on the left with the sword he will use to behead his daughter. Behind him, in the white hat, is the judge Marcianus.

The two forked poles are quite similar to the gibbet from which St. Agatha is suspended in this 12th-century miniature from Switzerland. In view of the distance in time and space between the two works, it seems clear that each was drawing on a widespread iconographic trope.

View the right and left wings

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Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.