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Saint Catherine Tended by Angels

Creator

French Illuminator · 1415–1425

The Spitz Master, an anonymous manuscript illuminator, worked in France in the first quarter of the 1400s in the circle of the Limbourg brothers. These three brothers are now best known for their illuminations in the *Très Riches Heures* and the *Belles Heures,* two renowned manuscripts made for Jean, duc de Berry. Not only is the Spitz Master's work stylistically related to that of the Limbourgs,

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Date: about 1420
Medium: Tempera colors, gold, and ink
Culture: French
Department: Manuscripts
Institution: Getty Museum

The miniature of Saint Catherine of Alexandria tended by angels opens the suffrage to the saint in this luxuriously illuminated book of hours. According to the legends describing her life, Emperor Maxentius had Catherine beaten and then imprisoned without food or water for twelve days because of her refusal to worship pagan idols. During this ordeal, angels comforted and fed her. The crowned woman who enters Catherine's chamber on the left is Maxentius' wife, who, upon seeing the ministering angels, converts to Christianity. In both composition and style, this miniature is related to one in the *Belles Heures* of the Duke of Berry, illuminated by the celebrated Limbourg brothers. Key episodes of Catherine's life are shown within the border's colorful foliage.

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