Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers
1562/63
Medium
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk, on cream laid paper, pieced
Dimensions
Sight: 50.5 × 39.5 cm (19 15/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
223800
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This highly finished sheet is a compositional proposal, or modello, for the high altar of Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome. Commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cesi for the left wall of the sanctuary, the painting was begun by Agresti in 1562/63 but finished by Federico Zuccaro in 1571/72. The subject is a conflation of two scenes taken from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. Above, Catherine asserts the tenets of Christianity before the Emperor Maxentius and 50 pagan orators assembled to ...