Sirona: a lost Celtic divinity?

Summary

We describe two old painted panels, presented in the French art commerce, allegedly once being part of a ceiling. We try to situate these paintings. The possibility of an Italian (travelling) painter as author was confirmed by style comparison. He may have signed his work on one panel with the Latin/Italian name: ‘GUIDO’. The work would date from early 13th c. AD. and be one of the earliest paintings in France. The other panel represents a woman, dressed as a widow, in front view, holding a snake in her hands. This picture could depict the ancient Celtic deity ‘Sirona’, the snake being her attribute as healing, renewal and fertility deity, worshipped in part of the Celtic world. Despite complete annihilation of its cult, some remnants have remained, almost always in the form of excavated stone sculptures, with which comparison was possible. This painting would then be the first known two-dimensional representation of this deity, as far as we know. This possibility exists, as transition in the ancient Western world from so called ‘paganism’ to Christianism was not always abrupt, as old ‘pagan’ believes and customs lingered on.

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Une version concise existe en français : Sirona: une divinité Celtique perdue? (PDF)