St Margaret Of Norto Analysis

An unknown artist created the statue Saint Margaret of Antioch ca. 1275-1325 A.D. using limestone, paint, and gilding. As the name suggests, the subject of the painting is Saint Margaret, depicted as young and innocent standing atop her emblem, a dragon. The statue is currently being displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Cloisters Collection though it was originally made in Burgos, Castile-Léon, Spain. While large, Saint Margaret of Antioch is not life size and stands at only 45 x 15 1/2 x 10 3/4 in. overall, however its display at the Met forces the viewer the direct their gaze slightly upward in order to view her face in its entirety if they are not standing far enough away.
The statue depicts the image of a young girl
In class we have discussed artists painting Europeanized versions of biblical characters despite the fact the the stories originated in the Middle East. This was done so that the Europeans who were viewing the artwork could better relate to the subject and I believe something similar was done with the unknown artist’s approach to creating Saint Margaret of Antioch. While this piece was created during the late 13th century or early 14th century the actual story of Saint Margaret dates back to the time of ancient Rome. She lived in the Greek-Roman city of Antioch during the rule of the Roman empire, regardless of this fact the artist chose to depict Saint Margaret as a medieval maiden. Perhaps this was done in order for those visiting the church where the statue was displayed to better connect to the story of the saint and relate it to their own lives in medieval
Saint Margaret was only 15 years old when she was martyred and I believe the artist highlighted this fact in several ways. They not only depicted her with childlike features and rosy cheeks but also the size of the statue overall makes her seem innocent, as it is reminiscent to the height of a small child. Furthermore, the artist incorporates many details about the saint’s legend, some of which may be lost on the viewer if they are unaware of her background. As previously stated Saint Margaret is standing atop what became her emblem, a dragon, though the features of this beast have become a bit hard to distinguish due to loss of detail over time. However, this creature is also a representation of Satan who assumed the form of the dragon and swallowed Margaret whole. Margaret was able to escape Satan by invoking the sign of the cross, because of this we can speculate that the statue could possibly have been holding a cross in the right hand that was broken off. We can also assume that the book the statue holds in her left hand represents the bible as this would further strengthen her ties to the Catholic religion. The unknown artist was successfully able to combine all of these