Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; XVII century.
"Saint Catherine of Alexandria".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It has frame of the eighteenth century.
Presents inscriptions on the back.
Measurements: 68 x 53 cm; 75 x 61,5 cm (frame).
The present work, dedicated to the figure of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, follows in a direct way the model established by Antonio da Correggio in his famous composition realized around 1530-1532, today conserved in Hampton Court Palace inside the Royal Collection. This iconographic prototype, widely diffused in northern Italy, presents the saint half-length, absorbed in reading, thus underlining her status as a sage among the virgin martyrs.
The saint is identified by her traditional attributes: the book, symbol of her erudition and profound knowledge of philosophical and Christian texts; the wheel, instrument of her martyrdom inflicted by Emperor Maxentius; and the palm, universal emblem of martyrdom. Far from a solemn or regal representation, the figure is shown as a young woman of delicate beauty, without external signs of her princely condition, which accentuates a more intimate and humanized interpretation of her figure in the years of her youth.
From the formal point of view, the composition stands out for the refined treatment of chiaroscuro, a resource that softly models the face and body through lateral illumination, generating a subtle play of light and shadow that reveals the mastery inherited from the correggesco model. This light delicacy, together with the grace of the oval face and the serenity of the expression, places the work within a tradition that combines idealization and naturalism. The same composition, half-length Saint Catherine, leaning on a wheel and holding the palm of martyrdom, is found in the work of several northern Italian painters, including Cesare de Sesto, Garofalo, Dosso Dossi and Lorenzo Lotto. There is also a similar, earlier painting by Bernardino Luini in the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, which may have been inspired by the work or ideas of Luini's teacher, Leonardo da Vinci.