Oil on canvas, 66cm by 81.5cm.
The artist moved from the Abruzzo to Venice where he became a follower of the great Renaissance masters Titian and Paolo Veronese.
The subject is a popular one in Christian art and can relate to a vision had by either St. Catherine of Alexandria or St. Catherine of Siena, in which each consecrates herself to Christ, usually portrayed as a child in his mother’s arms. The former St. Catherine, as here, is shown richly attired, and often with a martyr’s palm and the wheel of her martyrdom. The latter is depicted as a Dominican nun.
