Saint Catherine
1530 - 1540. Oil on panel.Room 052B
Born into a noble family from Alexandria, the young Catherine resolutely defended her Christian faith before the Roman emperor Maxentius. The persistence of her convictions led him to have her tortured on a spiked wheel. To the saint’s astonishment, a divine ray of light miraculously destroyed it.
From his apprenticeship with Leonardo, Giampietrino acquired great precision of line and a particular deftness in the execution of sfumato (blurring of the outlines), as evident in this work, of which he made various replicas.
