The Martyrdom of St Apollonia by Jean Fouquet (c.1420 – 1481. Painted c1452.
Featured in episode 52: Medieval Rehearsal and Performance.
Jean Fouquet was a French painter and miniaturist working in the mid-fourteen hundreds and one of his works is a manuscript illumination depicting the play of the martyrdom of St Apollonia. This illustration is thought to date from about 1452 and depicts the saint tied to a trestle. She is undergoing torture by having her teeth pulled and we can see one man holding her tightly by her long, thick hair and others binding her legs with thick rope while the torturer pulls on a long string hooked around her tooth. To the right side of the picture there is a figure in ecclesiastical dress who is holding a promptbook in one hand and a long baton in the other. He could be mistaken for a bishop directing the torture, but other features in the picture tell us this is an illustration of a saint’s play, not a depiction of the original story. In the background we can see the scaffolding supporting unmistakably theatrical scenery. Some spectators sit in parts of the scenery and there are devils to the left and angles to the right, an arrangement that conforms to the theatrical conventions of the day. So definitely a representation of the theatre and the character of the Ordinary directing the scene from on stage is very clear.
