Martyrdom

Been back to the PInacoteca di Brera today to do a couple of drawings, i've come to realise that i am very interested in the Martyred Saints, i wish to limit the use of the word martyr because everytime i say it "JIHAD" shoots into my head, and i'm not interested in making a political statement about early Christian Extremism Vs Muslim Extremism because not only is that cheesy but its what you want me to do, right?

I love how literal the early pre renaissance religious paintings were, here depicts a painting of St Stephen, the first martyred saint, he was killed by stoning.



Two images of St Peter of Verona, who is often depicted with a sword in his head. (he was decapitated)






I think it would be a mistake to ignore the reference to todays "martyrs" and i find the similarities between the aesthetics quite appealing





Just found this image, it was the first to come up on Google images under Martyr.

Definition of Martyr :

1: a person who voluntarily suffers death as the penalty of witnessing to and refusing to renounce a religion
2: a person who sacrifices something of great value and especially life itself for the sake of principle

?

Discovered this painter, who's work is cheesy but i quite liked the references to classical painting

http://www.notnoahbuchananart.com