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Title of Art: The Blood of the Martyrs
Artist: Giovanni Paolo Rosetti
Date of Composition: 1621
Art Form: Painting
Exhibit Institution: Basilica di Santa Pudenziana (Basilica of S. Pudenziana)
Exhibit Location: Rome, Italy
VM Image #: 0017
Photographer: Shala Graham
Date of Photograph: December 31, 2022
Subjects: Praxedes; Pudenziana
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Praxedes and Pudenziana gathering martyr bodies and bones, collecting blood with sponges.
In the Caetani Chapel, within the Basilica di Santa Pudenziana, a late sixteenth–early seventeenth century oil painting by Rossetti depicts the sisters cleaning up a martyr’s body and severed head, with the jar into which they would squeeze the blood from their sponges. The painting illustrates the saintly task they took upon themselves, the story of their lives of service to Christ.