Bernardino Luini
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
1519-1524
Scroll
Bernardino Luini
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
1519-1524
Physical Qualities
Oil on wood panel, 23 1/8 x 20 3/8 in. (58.7 x 51.8 cm.)
Credit Line
The Mary Frick Jacobs Collection
Object Number
1938.227
A spiked wheel, a book, and a wedding ring tell the story of Saint Catherine, a young, well-read noblewoman from third-century Alexandria, Egypt, who entered into a mystic marriage with Christ. Supported by his mother, the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child places a ring on Catherine's finger.
The spiked wheel is Catherine’s special attribute. As a devout Christian, Catherine argued forcefully against the emperor’s persecution of Christians. Infuriated by her well-reasoned arguments, but attracted by her beauty, the emperor tried to silence her by offering marriage. Catherine refused, stating she was already the “bride of Christ.” Outraged, the emperor ordered Catherine tortured on a spiked wheel. Miraculously, the wheel broke, setting Catherine free, but the irate emperor ordered her beheaded by sword.
The artist Bedanino Luini used his mastery of chiaroscuro (the interplay of light and shadow) to create fully rounded flesh-and-blood figures and depicted an illusionistic green curtain to reveal the scene to the viewer.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, by bequest, 1938; Mary Frick Jacobs, purchased from Eugene Fischhof, Paris; Sedelmeyer Gallery, Paris (by 1905); R. Langton Douglas, London; High Legh Hall, Knutsford (by 1898); Colonel H. Cornwall Legh; G. Cornwall Legh, Eaton Place, London (by 1857)
"Art Treasures of the United Kingdom Collected at Manchester," Manchester (England), 1857, no. 204, p. 27.
"National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds," Leeds (England), 1868, no. 269, p. 29.
"Illustrated Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and Allied Schools of Lombardy," Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1898, no. 30, p. 8.
"National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds," Leeds (England), 1868, no. 269, p. 29.
"Illustrated Catalogue of Pictures by Masters of the Milanese and Allied Schools of Lombardy," Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1898, no. 30, p. 8.
Gustav Friedrich Waagan, "A Walk through the Art-Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, London: J. Murray, 1857, p. 11
"Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain," London: J. Murray, 1857, pp. 181-182.
W. Burger (E. J. Thore), "Tresors d'Art Exposes a Manchester en 1857," Paris, 1857, p. 38.
"Illustrated Catalogue of 100 Paintings by Old Masters," Paris: Sedelmeyer Gallery, 1905, no. 51, p. 62.
Lionello Venturi, "Italian Paintings in America, 3 vols., NY: E. Weyhe, 1933, no. 3, p. 490.
Bernard Berenson, "Italian Paintings of the Renaissance," Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932, p. 314.
"The Collection of Maryland Frick Jacobs," Baltimore: Henry Barton Jacobs, 1938, no. 33.
'Object of the Week,' "The Sun," magazine section, 3/26/1961.
Gertrude Rosenthal, ed., and David Alan Brown, "Italian Paintings XIV-XVIIIth Centuries from the Collection of The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore: BMA, 1980, pp. 109-115, ill. p. 108.
Inscribed: None. Five labels (removed and in BMA Object file): (1) EXHIBITION/of/ART TREASURES,/1857/Green 126; (2) EXHIBITION/OF/ART TREASURES,/1857/G.C. Legh Esq. M.P./Proprietor; (3) EXHIBITION OF WORKS OF ART,/LEEDS, 1868./No. of Case or... 374/No. of Object 1; (4) NATIONAL EXHIBITION/OF/WORKS OF ART,/LEEDS, 1868./2.../Picture Galleries/G. C. Legh Esq./Proprietor; (5) No. 1197/vs. Luini
On View at the BMA
