Spanish school; c. 1600.

Spanish school; c. 1600.
"The mystical nuptials of St. Catherine of Alexandria".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has a frame from the early twentieth century.
Measurements: 102 x 83 cm; 124 x 104 cm (frame).
In the canvas that occupies us the history narrated in the "Golden Legend" of Santiago de la Voragine is represented, according to which Catalina had in a dream the vision of the Virgin with the Boy in arms, who refused to take her by wife for not being sufficiently beautiful. She interpreted the dream and withdrew to the desert to learn the precepts of the Christian faith with a hermit, being baptized. In a new dream, Jesus accepted her beauty and made her his heavenly bride by placing a ring on her finger. In this particular case the artist has reflected on the moment when the Child offers her the ring. The scene combines a representation of the Holy Family, with St. Joseph and St. Anne, who in this case are not accompanied by St. Johnny, but by St. Catherine and finally, by an angel wearing a crown and standing in a break of glory, observing the scene.
The cult of St. Catherine of Alexandria was widespread throughout Europe from the 6th century onwards, she is included in the group of the holy helpers and is invoked against sudden death. Catherine was born around 290 into a noble family of Alexandria. Endowed with a great intelligence, she soon stood out for her extensive studies, which placed her on the same level as the greatest poets and philosophers of the time. One night Christ appeared to her and she decided, at that moment, to consecrate her life to him and to consider herself his fiancée, in a sort of mystical marriage. When Emperor Maximian came to Alexandria to preside over a great pagan feast, Catherine took the opportunity to try to convert him to Christianity, which aroused his anger. To test her, Maximian imposed on her a philosophical debate with fifty wise men whom she would try to convert. Catherine succeeded, provoking the emperor's wrath. The emperor had the sages executed, but not before proposing to the saint that she marry one of them, to which she flatly refused. The emperor then ordered her to be tortured using a machine with spiked wheels. Miraculously, the wheels broke when they touched Catherine's body, so she finally had to be beheaded. Although her historical existence was questioned by the Catholic Church since 1961, considering her a literary creation as a Christian counterpoint to the great pagan philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria, she remains inscribed in the Roman martyrology freed from legendary narratives.