The characters are Saints from Paris. This painting was on the outside of the shutters of an altarpiece in dresden.

Saint Genevieve is holding the candle which she miraculously re-lit. Legend says that god lit two of the candles she was holding and the candles have apparently healed many people. At several other times candles also re lit in her hands. There is a story of their being a rainstorm and the candle-light went out but when she held it, it re-lit and stayed lit until they reached the church.

Saint Genevieve is wearing the alpha and omega signs on the brooch on her neck. The signs mean 'truth' in Greek and they are the first and last letters of the greek alphabet.

Apollonia was in a group of virgin martyrs. brooch shows pincers conveying how she was tortured by having her teeth extracted, she was burned to death after her torture during a christian uprising. she is popularly regarded as the patroness of dentistry.

Narrative: I think the painting highlights what the saints are famous for. It's almost propaganda in the sense that they still look very normal as Apollonia had her teeth pulled out and was burned to death (I think this is just an imagined image of them standing together, shown with the gold halos. Saint Genevieve has a much more neutral colour and approach as her story is not disturbing, she is a saint through being able to re-light the candles. Whereas, Apollonia's dress is bright red and she is looking down in not an excited or pleasant way, showing that her experience was much more grilling and hard to deal with, portrayed by a harsh red dress.

Defacing A Blonde Woman, by Palma Vecchio. I chose to highlight these things because they all contributed to portraying her as a half-nude woman rather than naked, displaying herself. More promiscuous for the viewer rather than naked within herself. She is holding flowers and has a bracelet, brooch, offering things towards the spectator but being inviting yet cautious with her eyes.