Novohispanic School. Mexico. 18th century.  'Saint Barbara' Oil on canvas. 109 x 85,5 cm. Barbara came from Nicomedia, on the Anatolian Peninsula, in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries AD. Highly intelligent, she was the daughter of Diocorus, a wealthy pagan man. Through her reading and studies she questioned her paganism, and because of her religious concerns, she was instructed in the catechism and converted to the Christian faith. Because of her physical beauty, she had no shortage of suitors, but she kept herself a virgin in order to consecrate herself to God. Her father had a tower built to keep her from the eyes of strangers. On one of her father's journeys, she herself ordered the workmen to build a third window (she only had two) to honour the Holy Trinity. She was tortured for her faith, but she did not die as she received help and care from heaven.  As she refused to worship the pagan gods, her father finally cut off her head. After decapitating her, her father was struck by lightning and no trace of his body was left. In our canvas she appears holding in her right hand the martyr's palm and, to her right, her most characteristic attribute, the tower in which she was imprisoned.