St. Anastasia

From the Cathedral of St. Anastasia
Circa 1150-1200
Relief, 39.8 x 29.9 in. (101 x 76 cm.)
Permanent Exhibition of Sacred Art, Convent of St. Mary, Zadar, Croatia

In the 12th century control of Zadar was disputed between Venice and Hungary, both Latin Catholic regimes; but in earlier centuries it had been ruled from Constantinople, and the persistence of Byzantine imagery is evidenced here by St. Anastasia's hand cross, the conventional signifier of martyr status in Orthodox iconography.

The meaning of a palm-out gesture depends on context. Here it denotes a blessing.

Identified and described in the catalogue of the Cluny exhibition "Et ils s'émerveillèrent : L'art médiéval en Croatie," 2012.

Read more about images of St. Anastasia.

Source: Marie-Lan Nguyen via this page at Wikimedia Commons.