Beheading of St. Catherine

The Beheading of St. Catherine, dated 1550 in the Kunsthistorisches Museum — six years after Altdorfer's death in 1538 — raises questions of attribution or late dating that scholarship continues to examine. Catherine of Alexandria, the learned virgin martyr, was among the most popular female saints in late medieval and early modern devotion, and her beheading was the culmination of a narrative that included philosophical debate, miraculous survival, and torture. Altdorfer's treatment on lime panel deploys the martyr's dramatic moment — the sword descending — with the same interest in landscape setting and psychological expressiveness visible in his authenticated works. The Kunsthistorisches Museum provides an important context of comparison with other Altdorfer panels in the collection.

Lime panel is an unusual support, possibly a fragment of a larger decorative or devotional programme. Paint application shows the crisp outline and layered colour construction of the Danube School. The executioner's figure is likely painted with dynamic foreshortening to emphasise the violence of the act.