Narrative and Spatial Strategies in Tomaso da Modena's Stories of Saint Ursula in Treviso

Tomaso Barisini, more commonly known as Tomaso da Modena, was active between 1347 and 1358 in Treviso, where he left his most important works. Among these is the cycle of frescoes with the stories of St Ursula in the church of Santa Margherita, detached from the walls of the church at the end of the nineteenth century and now kept in the Museum of St Catherine. In the cycle, commissioned by the rich merchant Diomede Baz-zoletti, the painter interprets and updates the legend of the Saint, made very popular by Jacopo da Varagine, with a vividly naturalistic pictorial language, underlining the psychology of the characters and the dramatic tension of the events culminating in the massacre of the Saint and her companions. Moreover, it engages the spectator with a series of totally innovative spatial devices.