Ofertas

This piece is called Ofertas, which is Spanish for ‘offers’. Generally, offers are goods that customers can obtain at a discount and are cheaper than normal. But you might wonder what exactly is being offered in this piece. The woman on the left lifts her yellow dress, as if offering her body. The woman in the middle offers her breasts. Or is it what’s on the glass table that is on offer?

The expression ‘on a silver platter’ means that someone receives or achieves something with little or no effort. It is these words the woman in the middle is literally expressing. She presents her breasts on a silver platter.

Saint Agatha lived in the third century A.D. and came from the Italian island of Sicily. Agatha devoted her life to God from a very young age. She refused to make sacrifices to pagan gods and because of this transgression, her breasts were cut off.

In the visual arts, saints are often depicted with attributes that are specific to their torture.

Detail of Francisco de Zurbarán Saint Agatha (1630–1633)