The Representation of Martyrdoms During the Early Counter-Reformation in Antwerp

No one who has passed through those rooms in the Antwerp Gallery which contain the works of the generation before Rubens can fail to have been impressed by a group of vivid and often gruesomely depicted martyrdoms. They are, notably (and for the time being I give the current Gallery attributions) : The Martyrdom of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, by Hieronymus Francken, The Charity and Martyrdom of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Diocletian condemns St Sebastian to Death and St Sebastian beaten with Rods, and Two Scenes from the Martyrdom of St George, all by Ambrosius Francken. As far as I know, the... Mehr ...