Artist: Mia Piragnoli Robertson
Title: Petronilla de Meath (1324)
Medium: Mixed-media sculptured)
Size: 58” H × 15” W × 7” D
"Petronilla is a mixed-media sculpture created as a monument to Petronilla de Meath, a woman believed to be the first documented person in Europe executed following an accusation of witchcraft.
In 1324, Petronilla was a servant in the household of the wealthy Dame Alice Kyteler, against whom the original accusations of witchcraft were directed. Alice had the position and means to escape. Petronilla did not. The servant left behind became the vulnerable target: she was imprisoned, tortured, forced to confess, and ultimately burned at the stake.
This work is not intended to memorialize an accusation of witchcraft. It memorializes the woman who bore its consequences, a woman without wealth, status, or the means to save herself. Petronilla’s story becomes one of class, power, scapegoating, and the devastating injustice that occurs when society places its punishment upon those least able to escape it.
Rigid black fibers collide with a chaotic, swirling gradient of crimson and burgundy hurl, evoking both violence and resistance. The domestic broom form references Petronilla’s position as a servant while transforming an object of household labor into a monument to the woman herself.
Through Petronilla, an ordinary domestic object becomes an archival testament to a woman whose life might otherwise be remembered only for the manner of her death. The work asks instead that she be remembered for the injustice done to her."
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