St Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, painted around 1618-1620, is Artemisia's treatment of the early Christian martyr whose learning made her the patron saint of philosophers and scholars. Catherine, who was tortured on a spiked wheel (the Catherine wheel) and then beheaded for refusing to renounce her faith or marry the Emperor, was a female intellectual martyr whose symbolic resonance clearly attracted Artemisia. The saint's composed intelligence, her willingness to suffer rather than compromise her intellectual and spiritual convictions, made her a figure of personal significance for a painter who had herself suffered for refusing to be silenced. The Caravaggesque light and the figure's psychological authority are characteristic of Artemisia's early mature manner.

The saint is presented in rich costume with her traditional attributes — the broken wheel and the palm of martyrdom. The strong directional lighting typical of the Caravaggist tradition illuminates the figure against a dark background.