Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Image credit: National Trust Images

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Saint Catherine, crowned (alluding to her royal birth), wears a red robe with an IHS brooch. IHS is the abbreviation of 'Jesus' in Greek, and the brooch both indicates her conversion to Christianity and alludes to her mystic marriage to Christ. It could also be a reference to the then recently deceased and canonised Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444), a Franciscan friar and preacher who displayed this monogram on a tablet during his sermons. The virgin saint holds the palm of her martyrdom and a book. Behind her is her attribute, part of the spiked wheel on which she was tortured. She was beheaded by the pagan Emperor Maxentius in around AD 310.

This picture is inscribed on the back L:D:V: in the false belief that it was by Leonardo da Vinci.

National Trust, Stourhead

Warminster

Title

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Date

1507–1532

Medium

oil on panel

Measurements

H 58 x W 45.5 cm

Accession number

732122

Acquisition method

gift from Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare along with the estate, house and its contents, 1946

Work type

Painting

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National Trust, Stourhead

Stourton, Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 6QD England

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