St. Catherine of Alexandria (1597), Caravaggio.
November 25th is the feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria—an excellent occasion to share this Caravaggio masterpiece. He painted it at the request of Cardinal Del Monte, whose mother was named Catherine. My own grandmother was also a Catherine (with a “C”), and I like to think she would have appreciated this painting as much as I do.

After Del Monte’s death, the painting passed to the Barberini family, then was acquired by Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza in 1922. Today it hangs in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

This work marks a turning point in Caravaggio’s career, as it’s one of the first in which he uses light in a truly sculptural way—defining forms and giving them weight and presence. It’s also interesting that, unlike in his later years, he isn’t “breaking the rules” here. The Council of Trent had directed that the torture wheel should not be placed prominently in depictions of St. Catherine, since it was not the actual cause of her martyrdom. Caravaggio followed that instruction and chose instead to emphasize the sword, the instrument that ultimately ended her life.