Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Artemisia Gentileschi painted Saint Catherine of Alexandria around 1640, during her mature Neapolitan period when she had achieved international recognition through commissions from England, France, and the major Italian courts. Catherine is shown with her standard attributes — the spiked wheel and the palm frond of martyrdom — but in the warm, richly colored style that marks Artemisia's late Neapolitan work, when her palette grew richer and her technique somewhat looser than in her more tightly finished earlier works. The saint's composed dignity and the careful rendering of her costume reflect the sustained formal quality that made Artemisia's female figures the most compelling in the Italian Baroque tradition outside of Caravaggio himself.

The saint's confident pose and the richly rendered costume are painted with Artemisia's mature technique, the warm Neapolitan coloring and bold modeling creating a powerful image of female sanctity.