Saint Catherine of Alexandria - 14th Century Catalunya Spain

In early Spanish medieval sculpture, it is quite exceptional to find the figure of
Saint Catherine of Alexandria depicted. Nevertheless, this sculpture has all the typical attributes and features (e.g. the wheel in her left hand, the emperor's head under her feet...) that show it to be Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

Due to the typical Spanish style characteristics of early medieval sculpture - such as the sculpture's slender shape, contoured face with large eyes and very present ears, we can conclude that it is a sculpture from the 14th century from the region of Catalunya (Spain).

Saint Catherine of Alexandria came from an aristocratic, Egyptian lineage and dedicated her life to proclaiming the Christian faith. Thus, she also wanted to open the eyes of emperor Maximinus who had sworn to kill all Christians. In a debate instituted by the emperor with 50 wise men, she managed to convince them, whereupon the emperor had the wise men beheaded and locked her in a dungeon to starve to death. Angels, however, brought her food and she converted the emperor's wife and her retinue. The emperor then wanted to make Catherine his wife, but she refused. Furiously, he had her bound between four wheels with nails, so that she would be torn apart. During the execution of the judgement, the wheels were destroyed by a flame from heaven. Thereupon she was finally beheaded.

With the exception of the right arm which is missing, this Saint Catherine appears to be a very fine example of medieval carving with, in particular, the presence of fine polychromy and gilding. This polychromy and gilding were checked and assessed as original by independent experts from various museums in the Netherlands.

Ref: J.Boccador-E.Bresset – Statuaire médiévale de collection, Les Clefs du Temps, 1972 : Figure nr. 119 – nr. 207, nr. 211

Ref. Musées:
Barcelona, Museo de arte de Catalunya
Barcelona, Musea Frederic Marés
Vich, Museu Episcopal

Provenance :
TEFAF - 2005 - collection Alessandro Cesati - Antichi ferri, oggetti d’arte - Milano (Italia)
Collection Valstar – Utrecht (The Netherlands)