Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Raphael)

Painting by Raphael

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Artist	Raphael
Year	c. 1507–1509
Medium	oil on wood
Dimensions	72.2 cm × 55.7 cm (28.4 in × 21.9 in)
Location	National Gallery, London

Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. In the painting, Catherine of Alexandria is looking upward in ecstasy and leaning on a wheel, an allusion to the breaking wheel (or Catherine wheel) of her martyrdom.^[1]

It was painted c. 1507–1509, towards the end of Raphael's sojourn in Florence, and shows the young artist in a transitional phase. The depiction of religious passion in the painting is still reminiscent of Pietro Perugino, but the graceful contrapposto of Catherine's pose is typical of the influence of Leonardo da Vinci on Raphael, and is believed to be an echo of Leonardo's lost painting Leda and the Swan. In 2022 the painting was included in an exhibition held by the National Gallery.

Painting materials

Raphael employed the usual Renaissance pigments such as natural ultramarine, madder lake, ochres and lead-tin yellow.^[2] He also mixed a special kind of finely powdered glass into several pigments to speed up the drying of the oil paints.^[3]

This picture was partially used on the cover of The Smashing Pumpkins album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

References

^ Capgrave, John, and Karen A. Winstead. 2011. The life of Saint Katherine of Alexandria. Notre Dame, Ind: University of Notre Dame Press.
^ Raphael, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, ColourLex
^ Roy, A., Spring, M., Plazzotta, C. ‘Raphael’s Early Work in the National Gallery: Paintings before Rome‘. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 25, pp 4–35

External links

Media related to Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael at Wikimedia Commons

Raphael

List of paintings

Early works

Baronci Altarpiece (1500–1501)
Saint Sebastian (1501–1502)
Resurrection of Christ (1499–1502)
Mond Crucifixion (1502–1503)
Madonna and Child with the Book (c. 1503)
Solly Madonna (c. 1500–1504)
Oddi Altar (1502–1504)
Conestabile Madonna (c. 1502–1504)
Portrait of a Man (c. 1503–1504)
Vision of a Knight (1503–1504)
The Marriage of the Virgin (1504)
Diotallevi Madonna (c. 1504)
Portrait of Perugino ¹ (c. 1504)
Colonna Altarpiece (c. 1503–1505)
Saint George (c. 1503–1505)
Three Graces (c. 1503–1505)
Saint Michael (c. 1504–1505)

Florentine period

Christ Blessing (c. 1502–1504)
Portrait of Pietro Bembo (c. 1504)
Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga ² (c. 1504–1505)
Portrait of Emilia Pia da Montefeltro ² (c. 1504–1505)
Small Cowper Madonna (c. 1504–1505)
Terranuova Madonna (c. 1504–1505)
Madonna del Granduca (c. 1505)
Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1505)
Young Man with an Apple (c. 1505)
Self-portrait (1504–1506)
La donna gravida (1505–1506)
Madonna del Cardellino (c. 1505–1506)
Young Woman with Unicorn (c. 1505–1506)
Madonna del Prato (1506)
Madonna with Beardless Saint Joseph (c. 1506)
Portrait of Agnolo Doni (c. 1506)
Portrait of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro (c. 1506)
Portrait of Maddalena Doni (c. 1506)
Ansidei Madonna (1505–1507)
Madonna of the Pinks (c. 1506–1507)
Bridgewater Madonna (c. 1507–1508)
The Deposition (1507)
Madonna of the Baldacchino (c. 1506–1508)
La belle jardinière (1507–1508) (completed by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio)
Canigiani Holy Family (c. 1507–1508)
Colonna Madonna (c. 1507–1508)
Portrait of a Young Woman (La Muta) (c. 1507–1508)
Esterhazy Madonna (c. 1508)
Niccolini-Cowper Madonna (1508)
Tempi Madonna (1508)
Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1507–1509)

Roman period

Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami (c. 1509)
Garvagh Madonna (c. 1509–1510)
Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (c. 1509–1511)
Portrait of a Cardinal (c. 1510–1511)
Alba Madonna (c. 1511)
Madonna of Loreto (c. 1511)
The Prophet Isaiah (1511–1512)
Madonna of Foligno (c. 1511–1512)
Portrait of Pope Julius II (1511, 1512)
Galatea (c. 1512)
Madonna with the Fish (c. 1512–1514)
Madonna della Seggiola (c. 1513–1514)
Madonna of the Candelabra (c. 1513–1514)
Sistine Madonna (c. 1513–1514)
Madonna dell'Impannata (c. 1513–1514)
Madonna della Tenda (c. 1513–1514)
Portrait of a Young Man (c. 1513–1514)
Sibyls (1514)
Portrait of Bindo Altoviti (c. 1512–1515)
Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione (c. 1514–1515)
Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary (c. 1514–1516)
Creation of the World (1516)
Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano (1516)
Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena (c. 1516)
La velata (c. 1516)
Visitation (c. 1517)
The Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia (c. 1514–1517)
Madonna with the Blue Diadem (c. 1510–1518)
Holy Family of Francis I (1518)
Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan (1518)
Ezekiel's Vision (c. 1518)
Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez de Cardona-Anglesola (with Giulio Romano) (c. 1518)
Saint Margaret and the Dragon (c. 1518)
La Fornarina (1518–1519)
Small Holy Family (c. 1518–1519) (with Giulio Romano)
Portrait of a Young Woman (c. 1518–1519) (with Giulio Romano)
Transfiguration (1516–1520)
Madonna de Bogota (c. 1517–1520)
Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals (c. 1518–1520)
Madonna of the Rose (1518–1520)
Self-Portrait with a Friend (1518–1520)