The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This diminutive unfinished painting shows the mystic marriage of Saint Catherine—her attribute of the wheel is merely suggested behind her bare shoulder—to the Christ Child. The unidentified saint at the right may be a portrait of the sculptor Valerio Belli, who Parmigianino may have known in Rome in the 1520s—thus it is possible that this exquisite sketch-like painting may have been done for him. Such works by Parmigianino were acquired by collectors in the sixteenth century, and this particular painting once belonged to an illustrious collection in the seventeenth century, despite that it was incomplete.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
- Artist: Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (Italian, Parma 1503–1540 Casalmaggiore)
- Date: ca. 1527
- Geography: Country of Origin Italy
- Medium: Oil on wood
- Dimensions: 8 1/4 × 10 5/8 in. (21 × 27 cm)
Framed: 10 1/4 × 13 in. (26 × 33 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Musée du Louvre - Département des Peintures
- Rights and Reproduction: © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art