Saint Lucia

Vincenzo Carducci painted this small oil on canvas in the first third of the 17th century, and it formed part of the collection donated by Valentín Cardera. It is a half-length portrait of Saint Lucia with long hair and a flower of crowns, like the Virgin Mary. She is framed in a circle and shown with her usual iconography: the eyes on a tray, the palm frond symbolizing martyrdom, and a book alluding to her wisdom. Spanish Baroque painters were not all the same, and instead made up several different schools. Carducci was part of the first generation of the Madrid school, formed by Florentine Italians. Madrid was the seat of the court and therefore a hub for artists, since most of their clients were there: the royal family, nobility, upper-middle classes, and religious orders.