Northern Italy, Veneto, probably Verona, circa 1370-1390

This serene figure of Saint Catherine, richly polychromed and gilded, is emblematic of the flourishing exchange between the various artistic centres of Northern Italy at the end of the 14th century; she is also a rare survival of pre-Renaissance wood private devotional sculpture.

In the 14th century, the Veneto experienced intense artistic development, particularly around the rich and powerful city-states of Venice and Verona, but also in Padua, Vicenza, Treviso and, further north, Belluno. The Franciscan and Dominican orders played a key role in the proliferation of devotional images and the rise of the cult of saints and the Virgin Mary. Small statues for private devotion, linking the Gothic influences of northern Europe with the emergence of a Venetian style in the Quattrocento, were an expression of a more intimate piety typical of this period of transition.

Striking parallels can be drawn between the rather compact silhouette of this Saint Catherine and Lombard statuary, which broke with the canons of late Gothic art. The same is true of her face and the verticality of the folds of her robe. The same characteristics appear on a relief of the Cardinal Virtues from the Sarcophagus of Vieri da Massignano, dating from the late 14th century (Castello Sforzesco, Milan, inv. 791). A similar comparison can also be made with the reliefs on the Tomb of Bernabò Visconti by Bonino da Campione (ibidem, inv. 773bis).

For comparable physical characteristics in other Venetian sculpture, we can point to the figures of saints carved on an antependium in the Museo Diocesano in Treviso (circa 1360), or another Saint Catherine on a relief depicting a Madonna and Child with Donor and Two Saints on the façade of the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni (Venice, circa 1360). The majestic braid that runs down the back of the present Saint Catherine, nearly ending at the base of the sculpture, is another feature common to other examples of Venetian statuary. We find it on one of the telamons of the Arco del Beato Bertrando, a funerary monument attributed to a Lombard sculptor under Venetian influence (Museo del Duomo, Udine; circa 1340), on the Saint Cecilia by the Maestro di Sant'Anastasia (Museo Castelvecchio, Verona), and on the Saint Euphemia attributed to a Veneto-Friulian sculptor in the Palazzo Arcivescovile in Udine (circa 1360; inv. OA 58178).

The subtle polychromy of our Saint Catherine and the abundance of gilding, both particularly well preserved, recall the close link between painters and sculptors in the Trecento, particularly in Veneto. The Altarpiece with Stories from the Old and New Testaments, circa 1395, signed by both the sculptor Caterino di Andrea Moronzone and the painter Bartolomeo di Paolo, is emblematic of the close collaborations that took place at the time (Museo Correr, Venice; cf. A. Markham Schulz, op. cit., pp. 101-104).

Thus, remarkable comparisons for the present Saint Catherine can also be observed in several paintings. Her long braid is reminiscent of that of a figure seen from behind in the fresco of the Story of Saint Ursula by Tomaso da Modena (Museo Civico, Treviso; circa 1355-58); her dress with heavy vertical folds is similar to that of the Virgin in the altarpiece of the Madonna della Misericordia by Simone da Cusighe (Ca' d'Oro, Venice; circa 1394), or to those of Saint Ursula and her companions in the Chiesa di Sant'Orsola (Belluno; circa 1355). Another Saint Catherine, painted a fresco on one of the columns of the former church of San Nicolò in Treviso, holds the wheel of her martyrdom in her right hand in a manner comparable to the present example (Museo Santa Caterina, Treviso; c. 1350-55); note also the identical border on the neckline of her dress and the numerous vertical folds spreading out at the saint's feet.

RELATED LITERATURE

W. Wolters, La scultura veneziana gotica 1300 – 1460, 2 vol., Venice, 1976 ;

S. Sponza, « Pittura e scultura a Venezia nel Trecento: divergenze e convergenze », in La pittura nel Veneto. Il Trecento , 2. vol. Milan, 1992, II, pp. 409-441;

A. Markham Schulz, La pala d'altare del Corpus Domini di Caterino Moranzone presso il Museo Correr: storia, significato e stile, in “Bollettino dei Musei Civici Veneziani”, III, 2007, 2, pp. 101-104;

A. Markham Schulz, Woodcarving and woodcarvers in Venice 1350-1550 , Florence, 2011; L. Mor, “Sul finire del Medioevo: sculture lignee in Friuli e il Maestro della Santa Eufemia di Segnacco”, in Nuovi restauri e nuove ricerche sulla scultura lignea friulana, Udino, 2022, pp. 81-105.Bottom of Form