Alterpiece Painting of St. Barbara

c. 1410-1425
Part of the hagiography of St. Barbara centers on her father’s restrictions of her marriage plans.
Museo Nacional D’Art de Catalunya

Connection to Website Themes

Spousal Power Dyanmics: This representation of a martyred saint would not directly relate to the spousal power dynamics within a marriage. Rather, the hagiography of St. Barbara emphasizes the importance of rejecting suitors from outside the faith.

Community Social Norms: Born to a pagan family, St. Barbara wanted to convert to Christianity and marry a Christian man. Her father locked her in a tower in an effort to prevent both of those developments. The social norms of marrying within the faith continued to exert enormous social pressure for medieval people. Interfaith marriages did occur, but incurred severe penalties, such as those outlined in the Siete Partidas, which typically punished women more severely than men.

Church and State: This object demonstrates high praise for someone whose loyalty to the Christian faith overruled that of familial loyalty. It shows that although the family held much authority in medieval society, saints’ lives often bolstered the status of the major institutions directly over that of the family.

What is Love: The person who made this retablo might have wanted to emphasize the importance of religious boundaries over love. The love Barbara demonstrated for Christianity would thus serve as a model for how to properly reject feelings of love that might on occasion tempt one away from the faith community.