AQUILEIA

PATRIMONIO DELL'UMANITÀ

domenica 22 dicembre 2024

Burial of Hermagoras and Fortunatus

Scena della Sepoltura di Ermagora e Fortunato, presso la Cripta degli Affreschi nella Basilica di Aquileia. Foto di © Gianluca Baronchelli
The final scene in Hermagoras’s story is portrayed equally vividly. The saint’s headless body is wrapped in a sudarium, while his disciples gather around the funerary bed to perform their melancholy duty. The representation in the basilica crypt of Hermagoras’s story reflects a specific practice, for the spaces that held saints’ relics in a church acted as a kind of memorial and were therefore painted with scenes from their lives.