(Bologna 1581–1641 Naples)
Saint Catherine of Alexandria,
oil on canvas, 55 x 46.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

Exhibited:
Sidney, Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Splendour of the Baroque. Painting from Bologna 1550 to 1750, 21 May - 18 July, 1993 and 20 September - 31 October, 1993, no. 32

Literature:
R. Spear, in: Splendour of the Baroque Painting from Bologna 1550 to 1750, exhibition catalogue, 1993, n. 32 p. 74-75 (as Domenichino);
N. Roio, “Domenico Zampieri detto Domenichino” in: La Scuola dei Carracci, ed. by E. Negro, M. Pirondini, Bologna 1995, pp. 281, no. 316, fig. 399 (as Domenichino);
N. Roio, I sensi e le Virtù: ricerche sulla pittura del ‘700 a Pesaro e provincia, exhibition catalogue ed. by C. Giardini, E. Negro, N. Roio (Pesaro, Palazzo Ducale 15.7.-6.10.2000), Modena 2000, p. 41, (as Domenichino)

The present painting of Saint Catherine is based on a distinctive female type of “neo-Correggesque physiognomy”, which can be found in facial-type of the figures painted by Domenichino around 1616/1617-1620, when he left Rome for Bologna and Fano. The oval-shaped face with rounded protruding chin, large eyes and small lips, is similar to those of the nymphs in the canvas Diana with Nymphs at Play (Rome, Borghese Gallery) and to the ‘Cumaean’ Sibyl (Rome, Borghese Gallery), both executed in Rome in 1616-1618. Also characteristic of the painter is the rich palette of venetian colour, evident in the red, blue and golden-yellow fabrics created with loose brushstrokes. Nicosetta Roio has suggested that the saint’s features resemble those of Domenichino’s wife Marsibilia Barbetti who was a model for several of Domenichino’s paintings along with her sister, such as the two virgins embraced in the altarpiece of the Madonna del Rosario (Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale), executed before 1625. Indeed Malvasia (1678) reports to have been told by Marsibilia Barbetti that Domenichino often used her as a model…“non pingesse mai quadro, che della sua effigie non si valesse, i suoi piedi, e le sue mani non ritraesse” (see N. Roio, 1995, p. 281).

Saint Catherine, holding the palm of the martyrdom, is here identified by her typical iconography with the crown alluding to her royal birth and the spiked wheel, symbol of the failed attempt of torture. She is depicted with an open mouth and upturned eyes, an expression that reveals her communion with the divine which was achieved by her martyrdom.