The Christian Ophelia
Translator: Joanna Brun
In the France of the second empire the issue of the Roman martyr’s representation began to appear. We are going to analyse a first level example of this iconography.
The first work on this theme is found in the maturity of the French painter Paul Delaroche. It is Jeune martyre, dated in 1853. Although the representation of Roman martyrs in this period was carried out by painters critical of the Church, we should not see in this work any trace of heterodoxy: Delaroche is an honest Christian painter who addresses in his production Christian, hagiographic and old testament themes, while also dedicating himself to history painting and portraiture.
As it seems, the painting was conceived by the author during a serious disease that could have cost him his life. We could talk about the painting being, in a certain way, an almost posthumous vision of the author. The description that accompanies Delaroche’s painting’s 1858 catalogue says this:
“Une jeune Romaine n’ayant pas voulu sacrifier aux faux dieux, est condamnée à mort et précipitée dans le Tibre, les mains jiées; le soleil est couché derrière les rives sombres et nues du fleuve; deux chrétiens aperçoivent le cadavre de la jeune martyre, qui passe devan eux, emporté par les flots”.
The work has a remarkable Romantic character: the beautiful young woman, whose hands are still tied, floats in turquoise waters, and, although it is night, the halo of sanctity illuminates her face. In the shadows, two Christians notice the scene and come to retrieve her body, just as happens in the hagiographic legends of the martyrs.
This image provoked the reaction of the sharp critic Theophile Gautier, who named it the Christian Ophelia because of its parallel with the contemporary Ophelia of the Pre-Raphaelite Millais.
OpenEdition le sugiere que cite este post de la siguiente manera:
Dr. Pedro Ortega (29 de septiembre de 2025). La Ofelia cristiana. El blog de Tartalo. Recuperado 14 de abril de 2026 de https://doi.org/10.58079/14rqk

