Lot 7: Property of The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sold to benefit the Charles Knox Smith Art Acquisition Fund

Saint Praxedes preserving the blood of the martyrs
oil on canvas
37 1/2 x 47 1/2in (95.2 x 120cm)

PROVENANCE:
Carroll Spence, Philadelphia;
his sale, Freeman's, Philadelphia, 1912, lot 20;
Charles Knox Smith, Philadelphia, acquired directly from the above.

Saint Praxedes and St. Pudentiana were daughters of a Christian Roman named Pudens who is mentioned in 2 Timothy 4:21. Pudens was associated with St. Peter and St. Paul while they were in Rome, and he was also the father of St. Novatus and of the St. Timothy who was a disciple of St. Paul. The two sisters were said to have cared for the bodies of martyrs and preserved their blood. They are interred in Rome in the Church of St. Praxedes.