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Catalogue 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]

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Sta Katarinas trolovning | Nationalmuseum

The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine | Nationalmuseum

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2012