Giovanni Lanfranco, St. Peter Healing St. Agatha
Circa 1614
Oil on canvas, 39.4 x 52.4 in. (100 x 133 cm.)
Galleria Nazionale di Parma
The image follows an episode recounted in the Golden Legend. In the prison to which the provost Quintianus has condemned her after ordering her breasts removed, St. Peter is sent to heal them, accompanied by "a child bearing a light, and divers ointments." In the painting the ointments are omitted and the child is imagined as an angel whose guiding hand helps allay any sense that Peter's touch might be inappropriate.
Read more about St. Agatha and St. Peter.
Source: Web Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons
