Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of a Woman as Saint Catherine
Pier Francesco FoschiLinkedCulture matchlcp-351cc2192780
- Date
- c. 1560
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Culture
- Italy, 16th century
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 97191
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a Christian, was martyred for refusing to make sacrifices to idols as decreed by the pagan Roman emperor Maxentius. While Maxentius first attempted to slay Catherine with spiked wheels, the machine broke when she prayed for salvation, and the emperor subsequently beheaded her. Catherine is identified in portraits through objects related to her martyrdom, such as a broken wheel, or a palm branch symbolizing the victory of the eternal spirit over mortal flesh. In sixteenth-century Florence, patrician women were often portrayed as such exemplary figures, indicating the virtues of the sitter. The spiked wheel identifies this woman as the Christian martyr Saint Catherine.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Holden Collection
- Provenance
- Riccardi Gallery, Florence, Italy, sold to James Jackson Jarves | ? - 1884: James Jackson Jarves (1818-1888), sold to Liberty Emery Holden | 1884-1913: Liberty Emery Holden, Cleveland, OH (1833-1913), by descent to his wife | 1913-1916: Mrs. Liberty Emery Holden (Delia Elizabeth Bulkley, 1838-1932), Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 1916-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
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