Lot 1557 Nα

St Catherine of Alexandria was only 18 years old and renowned for her beauty, when she was martyred early in the 4th century on the orders of the Roman emperor Maxentius. After surviving the many ordeals to which she was subjected, each time recovering from her torture and regaining her youthful appearance, she was finally beheaded.
This hitherto unpublished painting by Guercino can be dated betwenn the mid and late 1620s, when the artist returned to Cento after his Roman stay of 1621-23, but before 1629, when an account book to record the income from his commissions was started. As noted by Prof. Nicholas Turner, the dating of Guercino's St Catherine to his transitional period, before the commencement of his account book, is supported by its strong chiaroscuro, muted colours, with predominating rich burgundies, and many traits of handling. Same characteristics can be found in his “Semiramis Receiving News of the Revolt of Babylon” in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, painted in 1625. Another close comparison for St Catherine's facial type is the head of the Virgin in Guercino's “Assumption of the Virgin, with St. Peter and Jerome”, altarpiece for the Cathedral at Reggio Emilia (1626). Furthermore, St Catherine's reproachful gesture with the flat of her hand at the spiked wheel can be similarly compared to the figure of the courtier standing to the right in the “The Death of Dido” (1630-31, Galleria Spada, Rome), who makes a comparable gesture in reverse, at the horrific sight of Dido's suicide. Guercino often reused figural motifs and the St Catherine could be considered as a prototype for the tragic Dido: this adaptation suggests that the execution of the former painting did not long precede the other.
We are grateful to Professor Nicholas Turner for verbally confirming the attribution and for his kind assistance in cataloguing the painting.