1464
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Predella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit is a 1464 unspecified by Giovanni di Paolo, a Early Renaissance work, depicting Siena, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a small wooden panel showing a young woman kneeling while a bishop places a black-and-white robe over her shoulders. This is Saint Catherine of Siena, who lived in the 1300s. She cared for plague victims when others ran away. The panel was once the base of a big church altarpiece in Siena. Gold leaf makes the sky glow like heaven. Look up more paintings of *Italy, Siena* to see the city she loved.
Saint Catherine (1347–1380) was the daughter of a prosperous Sienese cloth dyer. At the age of six, she saw a vision of Christ and thereafter dedicated herself to chastity, penance, and good works. She became extremely popular in Siena when she selflessly cared for the sick and dying victims of the bubonic plague, known as the Black Death. These panels were once part of a predella (or pedestal) of a large altarpiece painted for the Hospital Church of Siena. The main scene of this altarpiece, showing the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (now preserved in Siena) was ordered by the Pork…
Saint Dominic can be identified by his black and white habit and the lilies he holds.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts.
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