Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"Saint Catherine of Alexandria".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 34 x 26 cm.
The work stands out for a great clarity in the capture of the qualities, the precision of the drawing, and an aesthetic inheritance of classicist character. The author presents the bust of a young woman with rounded and pearly forms, with blond hair, showing a lady of great beauty. In fact, the gesture of the young woman, with her face in profile with respect to the viewer and elevated as if contemplating something outside the work, is very reminiscent of the Saint Catherine in the collection of the Galleria Sabauda of the Royal Museum of Turin, which follows models by Francesco Barbieri "Il Guercino" (Cento, 1591-Bologna, 1666).
Guercino was one of the most acclaimed Italian artists of the first half of the 17th century. He was born in the town of Cento, in the province of Ferrara. The main influences that shaped his style were the Bolognese; Ludovico Carracci, his cousin Anibal Carracci and the Ferrarese Ippolito Scarsella. Apart from a two-year stay in Rome during the papacy of the Bolognese Gregorio XV Ludovisi, he was active in his hometown until 1642 when he moved to neighboring Bologna. He was about twenty-five years old when he came to the attention of his first important clients, among them Cardinal Alessandro Ludovisi, Archbishop of Bologna; Cardinal Jacopo Serra, papal legate in Ferrara; Grand Duke Cosimo II of Tuscany; and Duke Ferdinand Gonzaga of Mantua. By the mid-1620s he turned down invitations to work outside Italy, from Charles I of England among others. He seems to have been reluctant to enter into direct competition with his Bolognese rivals, especially Guido Reni, who from about 1610 was the most celebrated painter in Italy. Most of his abundant output consists of altar and easel paintings, but in the first half of his career he also painted frescoes in Cento, Bologna, Rome (the Aurora on the ceiling of the Casino Ludovisi) and the cathedral of Piacenza (1626-1627). His first style, "tenebrist", is characterized by dramatic lighting, saturated colors and agitated compositions. His stay in Rome led him to gradually modify his style towards a much more idealized and classical language, with calmer and more structured compositions, more elegant contours, a palette generally lighter and richer in pastels.