The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
- Artist
- Girolamo Romanino
- Artist Dates
- 1484/1487-c. 1560
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
- Date
- c. 1540
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 153 x 207.7 cm (60-1/4 x 81-3/4 in)
- K Number
- K1551
- Repository
- Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
- Accession Number
- 61.202
- Notes
Provenance
Signori Erizzo- Maffei, Brescia, as early as 1760 until 1871; Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Richmond, Surrey, England; Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920]; Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939]; Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978]. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundaiton on 7 November 1948; gift 1961 to Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, no. MBMA 61.202.
Catalogue Entry
Girolamo Romanino
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine
K1551
Memphis, Tenn., Brooks Memorial Art Gallery (61.202), since 1958.(1) Canvas. 60-1/4 x 81-3/4 in. (153 x 207.7 cm.). Good condition except for some restoration in background and in face of kneeling saint at right. A prominent position in the mature period of the artist is regularly assigned to K1551.(2) That the commission may have been given in connection with the founding in Brescia on November 25, 1535, of the Order of the Orsoline Dimesse is a plausible suggestion,(3) based on the inclusion of St. Ursula directly behind the Virgin and the identification of the kneeling nun beside Ursula as Sant' Angela Merici. The saint at the extreme left is identified by his attribute, the gridiron, as St. Lawrence.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1958, p. 54, and by M. Milkovich, 1966, p. 62, as Romanino. (2) KI551 has been attributed to Romanino by G. B. Carboni (Le Pitture e scolture ai Brescia…, 1760, p. 153), F. Odorici (Guida ai Brescia, 1853, p. 183), Crowe and Cavalcaselle (History of Painting in North Italy, vol. II, 1871, p. 389), G. Nicodemi (Gerolamo Romanino, 1925, pp. 231, 234, referring to K1551 as listed by Carboni and Odorici, but Nicodemi seems not to have been aware that the painting still existed and was in the Cook Collection), R. Longhi (in L'Arte, vol. XXIX, 1926, p. 149), A. Venturi (Storia dell’'arte italiana, vol. IX, pt. III, 1928, p. 856), B. Berenson (Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 488, and other lists), W. E. Suida (in Thieme-Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon, vol. XXVIII, 1934, pp. 549 £), M. L. Ferrari (II Romanino, 1961, pp. 46, 47, 74, pls. 91 f.), and R. Bossaglia (in Arte Lombarda, vol. x, pt. II, 1965, p. 169, noting the possible influence of Savoldo in the figure of St. Lawrence). (3) See Ferrari, op. cit. in note 2, above. C. Boselli (in Arte Veneta, vol. XIX, 1965, p. 208) groups KI551 with Romanino's oeuvre of c. 1540. (4) Listed in this collection by Carboni, Odorici, and Crowe and Cavalcaselle (see references in note 2, above).