Saint Margaret of Cortona by Guercino

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 Saint Margaret of Cortona, by Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri)

Oil on canvas, made between 1646-48

"[Carlo Cesare] Malvasia dated the altarpiece [St Margaret of Cortona] to 1648, saying that it had been commissioned by Alessandro Martinelli of Cesena.  The patron's remittance of 650 lire (162 scudi, 2 lire) was entered in the account book on 17 June 1648.  Two years before, on 23 November 1646, Martinelli had paid Guercino an advance of 33 ½ scudi for the canvas, stretcher and ultramarine.  A separate charge for materials was unusual, since such costs were normally comprised within the painter's overall fee.  A vertical strip of intense blue sky appears in the left-hand third of the canvas."   

Margaret was born of farming parents in Laviano, Tuscany. Her mother died when Margaret was seven; life with her stepmother was so difficult that Margaret moved out. For nine years she lived with Arsenio, though they were not married, and she bore him a son. In those years, she had doubts about her situation. Somewhat like Saint Augustine, she prayed for purity—but not just yet...

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One day she was waiting for Arsenio and was instead met by his dog. The animal led Margaret into the forest where she found Arsenio murdered. This crime shocked Margaret into a life of penance. She and her son returned to Laviano, where she was not well received by her stepmother. They then went to Cortona, where her son eventually became a friar.

In 1277, three years after her conversion, Margaret became a Franciscan tertiary. Under the direction of her confessor, who sometimes had to order her to moderate her self-denial, she pursued a life of prayer and penance at Cortona. There she established a hospital and founded a congregation of tertiary sisters. The poor and humble Margaret was, like Francis, devoted to the Eucharist and to the passion of Jesus. These devotions fueled her great charity and drew sinners to her for advice and inspiration. She was canonized in 1728. St. Margaret of Cortona's liturgical feast is celebrated on February 22.