The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena

Giovanni di Paolo's Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Siena presents Siena's most celebrated saint at the moment of her spiritual union with Christ, the mystical marriage that Catherine herself described in her theological writings. Catherine of Siena was canonized in 1461, and her cult was especially strong in her native city where di Paolo worked throughout his long career. His stylized interpretation, with its elongated figures and the characteristic Sienese gold atmosphere, gives the mystical vision a quality of spiritual idealism that transcended the naturalistic representation developing simultaneously in Florence and Venice.

Giovanni di Paolo's mystical subject is rendered in his characteristic style of flattened space, luminous coloring, and elongated figures that seem to exist in a realm beyond physical reality.