The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Predella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit
1460s
(Italian, c. 1403–1482)
Framed: 35.6 x 29.5 x 4.5 cm (14 x 11 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 28.9 x 23 cm (11 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
Location: 117A Italian Renaissance
Did You Know?
Saint Dominic can be identified by his black and white habit and the lilies he holds.Description
Saint Catherine (1347–1380) was the daughter of a prosperous Sienese cloth dyer. At the age of six, she saw a vision of Christ and thereafter dedicated herself to chastity, penance, and good works. She became extremely popular in Siena when she selflessly cared for the sick and dying victims of the bubonic plague, known as the Black Death. These panels were once part of a predella (or pedestal) of a large altarpiece painted for the Hospital Church of Siena. The main scene of this altarpiece, showing the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (now preserved in Siena) was ordered by the Pork Butchers Guild (the Pizzicaiuoli) in 1447. The predella was added later when Catherine was canonized in 1461. In the first panel she kneels before an altar and reaches up to choose from the monastic garments offered by Saints Dominic, Augustine, and Francis, all founders of religious orders. Catherine takes the habit of Saint Dominic, which she wore as the founder of the Sisters of Penance. The second panel shows, at the right, Saint Catherine giving her cloak to a threadbare beggar. The beggar was really Christ in disguise, and at the left he returns the cloak to her. For this act of charity, the cloak perpetually protected its wearer from the cold.- 1461-?S. Maria della Scala, Siena1838-1867Johann Anton Ramboux, Cologne (bought in Siena, c. 1838)1867(Cologne Sale May 1867)1867A. Muller, Dusseldorf, sold to the Hohenzollern Family?-1920Hohenzollern family, Sigmaringen1921-1966Baron Adolphe Stoclet, Brussels1966(R. Heinemann, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)1966-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Freuler, Gaudenz. "Künder der wunderbaren Dinge": frühe italienische Malerei aus Sammlungen in der Schweiz und in Liechtenstein. Lugano-Castagnola: Fondazione Thyssen-Bornemisza, 1991. p. 96Ramboux, Johann Anton. Catalog der nachgelassenen Kunst-Sammlungen des Herrn Johann Anton Ramboux Versteigerung zu Cöln am 23. Mai 1867 durch J. M. Heberle (H. Lempertz). 1867. lots 113, 115The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 59 archive.orgCleveland Museum of Art, “Golden Anniversary Acquisition,” 1966, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.orgDe Fernandez-Gimenez, Elizabeth Ourusoff. "Giovanni Di Paolo: The Life of St. Catherine of Siena." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 54, no. 4 (1967). pp. 103-10 www.jstor.orgThe Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 59 archive.orgCleveland Museum of Art, Louise d' Argencourt, and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. pp. 104-110Cleveland Museum of Art. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 1. European Paintings before 1500. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Reproduced: fig. 38A, p. 105 - 110The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 67 archive.orgChristiansen, Keith, Laurence B. Kanter, and Carl Brandon Strehlke. Painting in Renaissance Siena, 1420-1500. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. pp. 224-228Boskovits, Miklós, Serena Padovani, and Irene Martin. Early Italian Painting: 1290-1470. London: Published by Philip Wilson Publishers for Sotheby's Publications, 1990. pp. 104-112Krischel, Roland, Susanne Blöcker, Frank Günter Zehnder, and Hiltrud Kier. Lust und Verlust: Kolner Sammler zwischen Trikolore und Preussenadler. Koln: Wienand, 1995. p. CXII-IIIWarr, Cordelia. "Clothing, Charity, Salvatio and Visionary Experience in Fifteenth-Century Siena." Art History: Journal of the Association of Art Historians. 27:2, April 2004 Fig. 1.1, p. 188Raymond, and Josef Schwarzbauer. 33 Jahre für Christus: die Legenda Maior ; das Leben der hl. Caterina von Siena. Kleinhain: Verlag St. Josef, 2006 p. 97Genovese, Veleria E. "Postille Messinesi: Il Golgota di Gualtieri Sicamino e il dono per Polidoro da Caravaggio" Annali della Scuola normale superiore di Pisa, Classe di lettere e filosofia. Pisa: La Scuola, (Serie 5 2011, 3/2) p. 616Kennedy, Trinita, Donal Cooper, Holly Flora, Trinita Kennedy, Amy Neff, and Janet Robson. Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy. 2014. cat. no. 42a, p. 186Dwyer Modestini, Dianne, and Mario Modestini. Masterpieces: Based on a Manuscript by Mario Modestini. Fiesole (Firenze) : Cadmo, 2018. Mentioned: p. 323-324; Reproduced: p. 324, figures X and XI
- Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy. Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (organizer) (October 31, 2014-January 25, 2015).Lust und Verlust: Kölner Sammler zwischen Trikolore und Preussenadler (Joy and Loss: Cologne Collectors between the tricolore and the Prussian eagle). Josef Haubrich Kunsthalle (October 24, 1995-January 14, 1996).Golden Anniversary of Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 10-October 16, 1966).
- {{cite web|title=Predella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit|url=false|author=Giovanni di Paolo|year=1460s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
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https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1966.2