Description of the picture:
The departure of St. Ursula and eleven thousand virgins – Claude Lorren. 1614. Oil on canvas. 112.9×149
Claude Lorren (1600-1682) (real name is Jelle or Jelly) – French painter and landscape engraver.
Saint Ursula – the legendary martyr who was killed along with eleven thousand of her companions. The life of Ursula is in the “Golden Legend” by Jacob Vorraginsky, from where the artists drew details of the circumstances of her life and death. The plot of the picture of Lorren is one of the last episodes of life – the departure of the saint from Rome after a pilgrimage to Pope Kyriakou. This explains the crowded scene and the presence of some virgins in the retinue. Ursula herself is depicted with a traditional attribute – a white banner with a red cross of the Resurrection. The virgins have a different attribute bow and arrow, the “tools” of the holy martyrdom. The building on the left is an architectural motif that definitely points to Rome – this is the rotunda chapel Tempietto di San Pietro, a monument to Donato Bramante. Thus, it can be argued that Lorren portrayed the pilgrims on their last journey to Cologne, where they were waiting for death."