This painting is part of Romanino’s high altarpiece for S. Alessandro in Brescia, and is situated beside the main panel of the Nativity. Saint Alexander was included because he was patron saint of Brescia and the church was dedicated to him. He is given special prominence on the holy family’s right-hand side and has a double halo.

Alexander was a local martyr, beheaded in Bergamo in about 303. He was said to have been a Roman soldier in the Theban legion who was killed for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. He is reported to have survived the decimation of the Theban legion (the killing of every tenth man) and to have escaped to Milan. He was condemned to be beheaded but his executioner’s arms went stiff. Alexander escaped to Bergamo where he became a preacher and converted many people in the city.

He was captured again and finally decapitated on 26 August 303 on the spot where the church of S. Alessandro is now built. Saint Alexander is often depicted as a youthful knight holding a banner marked with a fleur-de-lis in reference to the lilies that sprang up where his blood was spilled. In the central panel of Romanino’s altarpiece, the Virgin wears a mantle embroidered with golden fleur-de-lis – Saint Alexander’s symbol.

The jacket Alexander wears over his armour would originally have been half yellow and half blue but the blue pigment smalt has faded to grey. Parti-colour (clothes that were cut from different coloured cloths) such as this was associated with livery, and other examples can be found in Brescian painting of this date. The armour is characteristic of the time and can be dated not earlier than the 1520s. It is very close in style to that worn by Saint Demetrius in Ortolano’s altarpiece, Saints Sebastian, Roch and Demetrius, of about 1520.

The heroic and richly coloured figure of Saint Alexander expresses the strongly Venetian character of Romanino’s work.