Saint Catherine of Alexandria

St. Catherine of Alexandria was a noblewoman in early 4th-century Egypt, who, according to Christian legend, challenged the pagan Roman emperor with her faith in Christ. Ordered by the emperor to be executed on a spiked wheel, Catherine was initially saved by the wheel miraculously breaking, but he then had her beheaded. She is identified here by the broken wheel with iron spikes.

Ferrucci, master sculptor of the cathedral of Florence, left the back of the statue unfinished, indicating that it was to be placed in a niche or in front of a wall as part of an architectural setting. The drapery covers Catherine’s body in a way that reveals its underlying form. The gracefully elongated proportions reflect a characteristically 16th-century European artistic ideal of female beauty. The orange stain on her chest is possibly iron staining from a now-lost (but not contemporary) necklace.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Heim Gallery, Ltd., London [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [no. 16as Venetian, late 16th century, attributed to Girolamo Lombardo, 1505/06-1590 ]; Walters Art Museum, September 1970, by purchase.