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Luca Signorelli

Italian, c. 1441/50–1523

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

c. 1490

Three episodes from the legend of Saint Catherine of Alexandria appear side by side in Signorelli’s painting. On the left, a pagan emperor sits enthroned alongside his wisest philosophers, whom Catherine would skillfully convert to her Christian beliefs. On the right, angels destroy a wheel devised by the enraged emperor to torture Catherine, and in the center, she has been beheaded. This panel originally formed part of a row of small images—a predella—beneath the main sections of an altarpiece commissioned for a chapel in the church of Sant’Agostino in Siena.

Medium oil, tempera, and gold on panel
Dimensions 11 5/8 x 36 3/8 in. (29.6 x 92.4 cm)
Object Number 1955.952
Acquisition Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status On View

Image Caption

Luca Signorelli, The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1490, oil, tempera, and gold on panel. Clark Art Institute, 1955.952

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