Reliquary Bust of Saint Margaret of Antioch
c. 1470
Medium
Wood with traces of 19th-century polychromy
Dimensions
50.8 × 45.5 × 29.6 cm (20 × 18 × 11 5/8 in.)
Classification
reliquary
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
48715
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The now empty space in the chest of this bust of Saint Margaret of Antioch once displayed a relic—an object associated with a saint or martyr. Margaret’s hands rest on a book, a symbol of her piety, and a dragon, an allusion to her struggle with Satan disguised as a beast. According to legend, a dragon swallowed her whole after her conversion to Christianity, but after making the sign of the cross, she burst forth from the dragon’s belly. She later became the patron saint of women in childbirth....