French School Circa 1820 : Fixed Under Glass "saint Barbara"

French School, circa 1820 : "Saint Barbara," fixed under glass, approximately 25 x 20 cm, mounted in a lovely period frame, regilded, 34 x 27 cm.
Minor losses of glass do not detract from the beauty of the work, the background of which has been replaced with a fragment of a more recent calendar.
All the attributes of the Saint are present: the tower with three windows (locked in it by her father, she asked workmen to cut out a third so she could escape and convert to Christianity), the ciborium surmounted by the Eucharist (as she lay dying, she asked to be able to intercede for the dying so they would have time to receive the last rites), the sword with which her father beheaded her, and behind it, smoke, for he was struck by lightning afterward.
She has thus become the patron saint of all those who work with fire or explosives: firefighters, sappers, artillerymen, quarrymen, etc.
Rare in this quality and condition, reverse glass paintings were very popular from the 17th to the 19th centuries, their distinctive appearance well-suited to private devotion.

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