The core of St. Margaret's story was summarized in the 9th century in the Martyrology of Rabanus Maurus:
In Antioch, Margaret the virgin. The Consul Olibrius, wishing to ravish and turn her away from faith in Christ, afflicted her with many torments and ordered her hung on a rack and her flesh slashed with sharp nails. After that he put her in a dark prison cell, where she overcame the seductions of the devil, who appeared to her in the guise of a dragon and an Ethiope. None of his deceptions could harm her. Finally she was beheaded by the persecutor's sword.1By the time of the Golden Legend we find a number of elaborations on this story in vitas and altarpieces (example). THE DRAGON AND THE DEMON In one of these elaborations the dragon swallows St. Margaret whole, whereupon she makes the sign of the cross and the dragon bursts asunder. Many medieval commentators cast doubt on the credibility of this account, but in the art the dragon became Margaret's most common attribute.2The artists found various ways to picture this sequence of actions in a single image. Some have Margaret actually in the maw of the beast, as in the third picture at right. Others emphasize her victory over the demon, for example by having her pierce the dragon through the mouth with a long spear topped by a Cross of Lorraine. Or she may stand with her foot on the dragon or on the demon's second guise as an "Ethiope," as in the legend.3 The dragon may be chained, as in the first picture at right, but it is never depicted as burst into pieces. THE CROSS To symbolize the gesture of signing oneself the images of St. Margaret vanquishing the dragon usually give her a cross of some sort, such as the small red one in her right hand in the third picture at right. The cross can also be an attribute, as in the second picture.THE INCREDIBLE BEAUTY All the versions follow Rabanus in having Olibrius instantly struck with desire for the maiden, whom he is usually said to discover tending sheep among others of her age ("like Leah," says one source, "the mother of Joseph the Patriarch.") It is a commonplace that female saints may be beautiful to look at but are more beautiful within, but in the case of Margaret most versions take special pains to emphasize what an early Latin legend calls her incredible beauty (inter omnes incredibile pulchritudine speciosa videbatur). In Bokenham Olibrius is astonished by "her forehead lily white, her curved dark brows and grey eyes, her ruddy cheeks, her straight nose, her red lips, her chin that shone like polished marble and was cleft in the middle."4For most artists of the time, such beauty had to mean fair hair. There are some exceptions in Spain (example), and some German Margarets are more "medium blonde," but throughout Europe the saint's hair is usually quite blonde, as in the three pictures at right. Pien notes pictures of her from France that show her as a shepherdess with a crook, sheep, and passis crinibus, which can mean hair that is either disheveled or simply loose-flowing.5 In fact, almost all images have the hair flow more or less loosely down her back and/or over her shoulders, as in the first and second examples at right. THE CROWN It is also commonplace to put crowns on virgin martyrs who may not have been royals, as in the first picture on the right, but in St. Margaret's case there is textual support for the many crowns we see in her portraits. In the Golden Legend Voragine writes of the saint's gaining "the crown of martyrdom" (Ryan, 370), but Caxton makes a fuller statement of this detail: "a dove descended from heaven, and set a golden crown on her head" (93 ¶28) The "Katherine Group" version goes even further: "All the earth began to shake and quiver, and a dove came, burning as bright as if it were on fire, and it brought a golden crown and set it on that blessed maiden's head" (Head, 703). And a much earlier Greek hymn (with the Orthodox version of her name) has "Marina, the hand of the officer severed your head / But the hand of God crowned you with grace" (Acta Sanctorum, July vol. 5, 35).Rather than a crown there are a few cases where the saint wears a garland in her hair (as in the second picture at right), or holds it in her hands as in the one with the demon underfoot that was mentioned above. THE BOOK Again we have a commonplace that in this case has special relevance to the legends. The books in the portraits will remind the medieval viewer of St. Margaret's final prayer that God may bless those who in time of childbirth or other peril will read, write, or even press to their body a copy of her story.6 Just having the book in one's house, according to the "Katherine Group" version, will prevent any demon from taking up residence there (Head, 704f).THE HOLY HELPER On the basis of her final prayers St. Margaret was included among the "Fourteen Holy Helpers" of late medieval piety. The first image at right is taken from a statuary group of the Helpers.
Prepared in 2014 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University
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