CECILIA WITHOUT A HALO: THE CHANGING MUSICAL VIRTUS.

Cecilia, the Christian martyr and later patron saint of music, embodies Christian virtuousness (in Latin virtus) and this her attribute marked her depictions right up to the early modern age. An abundance of Cecilia portrayals produced between the 15th and 17th centuries document changes in approaches to her significance. Among them exceptionally interesting is the one by the Roman artist Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652/53), which offers an opportunity for an analysis of the process of artistic secularization in the early modern age. While in earlier paintings, musical symbols of Cecilia are merely an additional attribute of the saint supporting her spiritual virtuousness, in her later portraits as a musician she loses her halo. Her attributes of power, originally fixed in a moralistic and religious manner, are now redefined as those of a secular artist. This change from virtus to virtuosity in her portrayals is parallel to changes which occurred in music around and after 1600. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]