Bernardo Strozzi (1581–1644), St Cecilia with the Heads of Valerian and Tiburtius, Oil on canvas, 117 × 97 cm, Kadriorg Museum, Tallinn, on short-term loan from the Museums of Strada Nuova – Palazzo Bianco, Genoa
Bernardo Strozzi, the most prominent painter in early seventeenth-century Genoa, was still a Capuchin lay brother when he painted this altarpiece. The work was likely commissioned by the Congregation of Saint Cecilia in Genoa for their altar in the now-demolished church of San Francesco di Castelletto. It was later owned by Palazzo Lomellini, one of the hundred aristocratic residences in Genoa.
Saint Cecilia (d. c. 230) is at its centre, a Roman virgin and martyr venerated as the patroness of music. According to the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae (5th century), she converted her husband Valerian (d. c. 230) on their wedding night, instructing him to be baptised by Pope Urban I (r. 222–230). Valerian’s brother, Tiburtius (d. c. 230), was also converted. All three were executed under a Roman provost named Almachius for their Christian faith and for burying fellow Christians.
Strozzi depicts Saint Cecilia seated beside a portative organ, with a cherub playing a trombone—symbols of heavenly music. The most arresting element of the composition is the silver platter bearing the severed heads of Valerian and Tiburtius, her husband and brother-in-law, both martyred converts. This rare motif derives from the Passio Sanctae Caeciliae (5th century) and the Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine (c. 1230–1298), a Genoese Dominican whose writings shaped local devotional culture. The platter also evokes the Discoperta, the silver dish in Genoa’s Cathedral of San Lorenzo, believed to have held the head of John the Baptist. This striking composition reflects a distinctly Genoese Baroque ethos, where beauty, violence, and sanctity are bound in luminous concord.