Burial of Hermagoras and Fortunatus

Guida Aquileia

Burial of Hermagoras and Fortunatus
The final scene in Hermagoras’s story is portrayed equally vividly. The saint’s headless body is wrapped in a sudarium, while his disciples gather around the funerary bed to perform their melancholy duty. The representation in the basilica crypt of Hermagoras’s story reflects a specific practice, for the spaces that held saints’ relics in a church acted as a kind of memorial and were therefore painted with scenes from their lives.