For whom the fire burns: medieval images of Saint Cecilia and music

The caccia Dappoi che ’l sole by Nicolò da Perugia appears to deploy the classic metaphor of fire to represent the sudden onset of courtly love. The object of passion is a lady whose name is carefully hidden inside a numerical senhal: cicilia. But the scene of the fire and its extinction bears a strong similarity to the martyrdom of Saint Cecilia as described in her Passio, in which the virgin remains unharmed by the flames of a Roman bath: thus, I argue that the piece celebrates not a woman, but a saint. This blend of meanings – a sacred theme disguised in the secular form of the Italian caccia – raises two hermeneutical issues. The first is the possibility of connecting Saint Cecilia with music much earlier than her ‘official’ patronage of the art in the sixteenth century. The second has to do with the legitimacy of viewing products of secular art through sacred lenses and vice-versa, which can significantly shape our understanding of medieval culture.