Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

341. MS M.917/945, pp. 296–297

St. Catherine

ca. 1440
The Netherlands, Utrecht
MS M.917/945, pp. 296–297

Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows, 1963

Catherine, nobly dressed in a crown and a luxurious ermine-lined cloak, prays from a small book bound in green cloth. Her attributes, the spiked wheel and sword, sit behind and beneath her. The sword is held by the Syrian Emperor Maximinus who lies vanquished beneath her feet. Maximinus had ordered the torture and execution of the young virgin saint after she refused his hand in marriage. The bear cub (catulus in latin) who toys with a red, gold, and green ball in the border may be a pun on Catherine's name.