(Verona 1528–1588 Venice)
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine,
oil on canvas, 152 x 197 cm, framed

Provenance:
Carminati collection, Milan;
Private European collection

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri (no. 44671) as School of Paolo Caliari (Veronese). Saint Catherine is represented at the centre of the present composition. She is crowned and richly dressed and supports the Christ Child as he rests on his Mother’s knee and leans forward to receive the ring that he will offer Saint Catherine from the young John the Baptist. The ring is emblematic of the mystic marriage of Catherine and God before her martyrdom, which is alluded to by the fragmentary wheel she kneels upon. The scene is observed by Saint Joseph, standing at the centre, and the Virgin seated to the right. Behind her there are two music making angels. The off-centre diagonal composition leaves space for a landscape view to open up on the left.

The present work is a replica of the painting of the same subject which is attributed to Veronese and assistants, probably including Benedetto his brother. This painting is now in the British Royal Collection: it was acquired by Charles II in the seventeenth century. This version differs from the present painting in its clearer light and, to the left, the inclusion of a classicising landscape with the ruins of a temple, which explicitly echoes the Renaissance spirit of Veronese’s frescoes at Maser, which were executed in the early years of the 1560s.