Description
Caravaggio depicts the instant immediately following the shot that causes Saint Ursula's martyrdom. The king of the Huns has fired an arrow at close range after the young woman rejected his advances. Ursula lowers her eyes towards her breast and quietly observes the wound, while the surrounding soldiers react to what has happened. The episode is compressed into an exceptionally restricted space, causing the figures to crowd around the saint and her attacker.
The painting is Caravaggio's last documented work and brings the expressive resources of his final period to an extraordinary degree of concentration. Light is scarce, colours are subdued and the figures seem partially to dissolve into the darkness. The legend of Ursula, a Christian princess who rejected an imposed marriage, offered many opportunities for elaborate storytelling.
