Room of the Saints

The large curved paintings in the Room of the Saints tell stories of belief, argument and danger. Catherine of Alexandria debates before a crowd. Barbara escapes from the tower where her father imprisoned her, while Sebastian’s martyrdom takes place among Roman ruins. Pinturicchio painted most of the room’s scenes himself. The ceiling draws on the ancient Egyptian story of Isis and Osiris. Its episodes include Osiris teaching agriculture and his murder by his brother. The sacred ox of Egyptian tradition connects this story with the bull on the arms of Alexander VI, the Borgia pope who commissioned the apartment. The same decorated interior therefore accommodates Christian saints, ancient mythology and the identity of a ruling family. The bull repeats among the ornament while the wall paintings give individual figures larger stories to inhabit. Above the doorway to the adjoining Room of Mysteries, Pinturicchio’s round Madonna and Child adds another religious image to this setting.