Holy Family with the Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
image: 148 × 103 cm · framed: 177.8 × 142.2 × 12.7 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund
Accession Number
2019.168
Tags
male
About this artwork
The marriage shown in this painting is called “mystic” because it was a purely symbolic. The infant Jesus places a ring on the finger of Catherine of Alexandria, a fourth-century saint who had a vision of dedicating herself to God and remaining a virgin instead of marrying. Note the otherworldly quality of the women and children’s elegant faces, compared to the naturalism of elderly Saint Joseph, who may be a likeness of someone the artist knew.