Sword

For martyred saints, a sword usually identifies the specific manner of their death and doubles as an attribute that lets period viewers recognize the figure at a glance — much as keys identify St Peter or a wheel identifies St Catherine. In scenes of violence such as beheadings, the sword is simply the narrative weapon, but its inclusion in a saint's hand or at their feet after the fact turns it into a permanent identifying symbol.

In allegorical and civic painting, an upright sword paired with a set of scales is the standard attribute of Justice, one of the classical cardinal virtues — the sword representing the power to enforce a verdict, the scales representing the impartial weighing that produced it. A sword can also simply signal rank or military command in portraiture, without any allegorical weight at all.