Artwork Page for Saint Catherine

Details / Information for Saint Catherine

Saint Catherine

c. 1520

Master of the Holy Blood

(Netherlandish)
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Culture
Flanders, Bruges
Medium
tempera on wood panel
Measurements
Framed: 91 x 34.5 x 5.5 cm (35 13/16 x 13 9/16 x 2 3/16 in.); Unframed: 86.6 x 30 cm (34 1/8 x 11 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of John L. Severance 1942.633.1
Public Domain
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Location
112 Northern Renaissance
Print

Description

Saint Catherine holds the sword with which she was martyred. This painting and another in the collection (1942.633.2) were originally the wings of an altarpiece flanking a central panel, now lost, that may have depicted the Holy Family. The identity of this artist is unknown, but he is named for a painting in the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges.

Bruges flourished as an international commercial center through the 1400s and early 1500s. Among its residents were many foreign merchants and bankers who, along with the Burgundian court, patronized artists and attracted specialized craftsmen such as furriers, hatters, jewelers, and goldsmiths. Bruges’s artistic production in the 1400s included celebrated artists like Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, Hans Memling, and Gerard David who painted large altarpieces, small panels for private devotion, and portraits. Bruges also remained an important center for the production of illuminated manuscripts.
A vertically oriented tempera painting depicts Saint Catherine, a woman with a light skin tone, who faces slightly right as she rests her hands upon a sword hilt. She wears an ornate red and gold headdress and a patterned yellow gown featuring vibrant pink and blue sleeves. To our left stands a reddish column, while a landscape of rolling hills and a solitary tree fills the background beneath a pale blue sky.

Saint Catherine

c. 1520

Master of the Holy Blood

(Netherlandish)
Flanders, Bruges

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