Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Cima, at the Wallace Collection, presents the learned princess-martyr with the quiet dignity that characterizes all of Cima's religious figures. Catherine's broken wheel and the palm of martyrdom identify her, while her rich costume signals her royal birth. This work falls in the decades immediately around 1500, when Renaissance ideals of harmony and classical order were being synthesised across Europe. Cima da Conegliano's saint panels and altarpieces served the extensive network of churches and confraternities throughout the Veneto that required devotional images of quality and reliability. His figures of individual saints combine specific observation of physiognomy and attribute with the idealized composure appropriate to devotional subjects. Working between Conegliano and Venice across three decades, Cima became the most consistent and prolific supplier of quality devotional painting in northeastern Italy, his silvery palette and composed figure types recognizable across the region's churches as a guarantee of competent devotional art in the tradition descended from Giovanni Bellini.

Cima's luminous technique is at its best in this devotional half-length — the saint's face is modeled with warm, clear light that gives the skin a translucent quality. The detailed rendering of Catherine's jeweled crown and embroidered dress demonstrates Cima's gift for depicting luxury materials.