Saint Catherine (panel from an altarpiece)

Saint Catherine (panel from an altarpiece), at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, depicts the fourth-century Alexandrian martyr whose complex legend—including her mystical marriage to Christ and her theological disputations with pagan philosophers—made her one of the most popular saints of the late medieval and early Renaissance periods. Vittore Crivelli's panel would have been part of the same altarpiece program as the Saint Jerome panel, the two saints selected by the patron for their specific devotional or dynastic significance.

Catherine stands with her wheel—the instrument of her failed martyrdom before she was executed by beheading—and a palm branch signifying martyrdom, her royal origins sometimes indicated by a crown. Vittore renders her elaborate costume with the decorative specificity of the Crivelli workshop, the wheel and palm treated as elegant accessories rather than instruments of violence.