4232 - Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria A bust portrait of a beautiful young woman in a stately robe, wearing fine jewellery, a crown upon her head and holding a palm frond in her hands as a symbol of her martyrdom; in the bottom left-hand corner, the wheel as an attribute and instrument of torture; according to legend, Catherine was the beautiful and wise virgin daughter of the pagan King Costus, who dedicated her life to Jesus Christ, whereupon she was to be executed by being broken on the wheel; divine intervention is said to have spared her from death at first, Catherine is counted amongst the ‘Virgines capitales’ - the three most significant early Christian virgins (Catherine, Barbara and Margaret), who suffered martyrdom for their Christian faith and to whom Dorothea was later added; in Catholic Bavaria, the saints enjoyed great popularity and found their way into the popular mnemonic ‘Margaret with the worm [actually a lindworm = dragon], Barbara with the tower, Catherine with the wheel - these are the three holy maidens”, She is also counted amongst the 14 Holy Helpers, who were invoked for assistance in times of need; due to her traditional reputation for intelligence and eloquence, she is regarded as a helper in cases of speech difficulties and ailments of the tongue. Furthermore, Catherine was the patron saint of schools and academic faculties, of wheelwrights, seamstresses and tailors; a religious genre painting with a slightly impastoed texture, oil on canvas, c. 1700, unsigned; indistinct annotations on the reverse of the more recent stretcher; historically relined and restored; signs of age, very beautifully set in a more recent gilded stucco frame, inner dimensions approx. 69 x 63.5 cm.