The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine
Artist/Maker
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x w: Mått 127 x 101 cm h x w x d: Ram 143 x 117 x 6 cm
Inventory numberNM 614
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum
Other titlesTitle (sv): Sta Katarinas trolovning Title (en): The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 56: FORMER INV. NOS.: 169 (M. 1796–97); 321 (F. 1798); 251 (M. 1804); KM 568. TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a single piece of coarse, plain-weave linen fabric. It has been lined with glue and mounted on a non-original stretcher. The ground is red. There are many retouches all over the painting and numerous surface deformations. The varnish is very thick and yellowed. Documented restorations: 1926: Lining. Overpaintings and varnish removed. Retouching and varnish; 1947: Old repairs mended. Cleaning. Varnish. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 44 (as Rubens or van Dyck, school of); Sander 1872–76, III, p. 115, no. 251 (as Rubens); NM Cat. 1958, p. 232 (as anonymous, 17th century); NM Cat. 1990, p. 423 (as anonymous, 17th century). The present work could possibly be linked to one of the few paintings that Stefano Magnasco signed: the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine in a private collection in Rome. That painting is signed “SM” on the base of the column in the background, and Anna Orlando has dated it to the middle of the 1660s.¹ Orlando describes the painting in Rome as typical of Magnasco’s late period, especially in view of the varying influences on display: from Genoese naturalism to Roman classicism, all infused with the artist’s assured use of a varied chromatic palette. The maturity of the artist is also in evidence in the expertly constructed composition, where two diagonals intersect at the precise point where the Christ Child is holding the ring in his outstretched hand towards St Catherine. The Nationalmuseum painting also seems to contain the varying influences found in the painting in Rome, but is smaller, focusing solely on the triumvirate of the Madonna, the Christ Child and St Catherine. The two compositions are alike in the way all the emphasis is laid on the ring through the compositional triangle of the three figures. The colour scheme, too, is similar between the two paintings, as is the characteristic profile of the Madonna and the saint, which is also found in several of Magnasco’s other paintings from the period.² In addition, the depiction of the Christ Child in the present painting is quite reminiscent of his counterpart in, for example, The Adoration of the Magi (Genoa, private collection), and Salvator mundi dormiente (Genoa, sold through a Genovese art dealer), as well as of the putti in the series of paintings illustrating La storia della musica (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux). ³ The rendering of the outlines of the three figures is more forceful, more akin to paintings from Magnasco’s earlier period, yet the shared characteristics with works of his late period are so pronounced that the Nationalmuseum painting, if attributed to Magnasco, should be placed in the context of the commissioning of the signed Mystic Marriage of St Catherine. If so, it was probably executed during the same period, perhaps as a ricordi or as a related private commission. In Fredenheim’s catalogue the painting is attributed to Rubens, which, given Magnasco’s influences, has some logic to it.⁴ However, as in the present case, several of the paintings attributed in that catalogue to Flemish masters active in Genoa should instead be regarded as works by their Italian followers. dp 1 Orlando 2001, p. 123, cat. no. 43. 2 For example the paintings of the Adoration of the Shepherds, sold at Christie’s, December 19, 1999, and the paintings of Susannah and the Elders in a private collection, Genoa, and the Holy Family during the Flight into Egypt with the Thief Titus, Orlando, 2001, pp. 101, 140, cat. nos. 21, 60. 3 Orlando 2001, pp. 82–83, cat. nos. 1a, 2, 16. 4 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet de Martelli (à Rome). [End]
Motif categoryReligion/Mythology
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword