Saint Ursula

This panel shows Saint Ursula, and was once the right-hand shutter of a three-part folding altarpiece made for Paul Withypool, an English merchant and courtier. The opposite shutter, also in the National Gallery’s collection, shows Saint Catherine, while the central panel (in Bristol Museums and Art Gallery) shows Withypool in prayer before the Virgin and Child.Saint Ursula is shown in profile, holding an arrow, the symbol of her martyrdom. Ursula, like Saint Catherine, was a princess, the daughter of King Maurus of Brittany. She married a pagan prince on the condition that he convert to Christianity and allow her to travel with him on pilgrimage to Rome. According to legend, she was accompanied by 11,000 virgins about to be married. On their return via Cologne they were all slaughtered by the Huns who were besieging the city, after Ursula refused to marry their leader.Like Catherine, Ursula wears a lavishly bejewelled red dress with a verdant green cloak. Solario has painted the pearls with great delicacy, imitating the effect of their sheen with subtle highlights. She is accompanied by an angel playing a harp.The reverse is inscribed with the words spoken by Elizabeth, the Virgin Mary’s cousin, when she learnt that Mary would conceive the son of God (Luke 1: 42): BENEDICTA TV INTER / MVLIERES ET. B[ENEDICTVS] F.[RVCTVS] V.[ENTRIS] T[VI] (‘Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb’). Also on the reverse are two cherubs holding a medallion that contains an image of Saint Paul, the donor’s patron saint. The coat of arms of the Withypool family are below.