# The Miracle of St Agnes [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TINTORETTO, Jacopo]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 400 x 200 cm ## Commentary The Miracle of St Agnes c. 1577 Oil on canvas, 400 x 200 cm Madonna dell'Orto, Venice The fifteen-year-old Agnes rejected the advances of Licinius, son of the Roman prefect, on the grounds that she was the bride of Christ, and was thereupon taken away to a brothel. When Licinius came with his companions to rape her, God struck him dead. At the pleas of the prefect - shown here clad in majestic red - Agnes brought him back to life through her prayers, but was then executed as a witch. The gang rape of a prostitute, unfortunately, was not unknown in Venice: known as trentuno \("thirty-one"\) it was popular among the sons of patricians as a way of "punishing" insubordinate courtesans. ## Related artworks - [A Philosopher \(detail\)]() - [A Philosopher]() - [Allegory of Faith]() - [Allegory of Fortune \(Felicità\)]() - [Allegory of Generosity]() - [Allegory of Goodness]() - [Allegory of Happiness]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Carità]() - [Allegory of the Scuola della Misericordia]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Marco]() - [Allegory of the Scuola di San Teodoro]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()