Saint Agnes

Andrea di Giusto painted this image of Saint Agnes around 1365, depicting the early Christian virgin martyr who refused marriage and was executed during the Diocletian persecution. Agnes was one of the most popular female saints in medieval devotion, invoked as a patron of chastity and young women. This panel likely formed part of the same polyptych as the companion Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Nicholas of Bari panels, also in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Executed in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the youthful saint is depicted with her traditional attribute of a lamb, referencing the Latin wordplay on her name (agnus/Agnes). The delicate rendering of her features and the careful patterning of her garments follow late Gothic Florentine conventions.