
St. Catherine
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.