Beheading of St Catherine of Alexandria, single sheet woodcut, [Southern Germany, c. 1470-1480]

CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA, SAINT

[Southern Germany (Lake Constance?), c. 1470-1480]

single sheet woodcut (193 x 142mm.; image 187 x 126mm.), with early hand-colouring, verso blank, no watermark, trimmed at edges

A rare survival of a single sheet woodcut, a fine example of what would have been a relatively inexpensive devotional image. Its artistic qualities are limited (but not crude); there is a sense of perspective and movement to the stance of the executioner and the folds of drapery are delineated well, but the importance of the image was in the subject matter rather than the artistry.

Three different woodcuts of St Catherine are recorded as belonging to a Dominican convent in Nuremberg (Origins of European Printmaking, p.47).

LITERATURE:

Schreiber 1338a (listing a copy in Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum)

PROVENANCE:

from the collection of a German noble family