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| Artist | Attributed to Bartolomeo Veneto (Italian painter, active 1502; died 1531 Turin, Italy) |
| Previous attributions | Previously attributed to German School |
| Title | Saint Catherine of Alexandria Crowned with a Garland of Flowers |
| Date earliest | probably 1520 |
| Date latest | probably about 1530 |
| Material | oil on panel |
| Measurements | 35.2 x 27.9 cm |
| Description | This picture entered the collection of the Glasgow Museum as German School, but is now attributed to Bartolomeo Veneto. The fantastic hairstyle with white jasmine flowers relates to Saint Catherine of Alexandria as the Bride of Christ. The sector of the wheel is a reminder of the wheel on which she was tortured to death, but which was struck by lightning and thunder sent down from the heavens. The tightly crimped hair of the saint and the richly jewelled embroidery of her sixteenth century dress relate the painting to contemporary fashionable portraits painted by Bartolomeo Veneto in his mature style. |
| Subject | figure; religion (St Catherine of Alexandria) |
| Collection | Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums): Kelvingrove Museum |
| Current accession number | 210 |
| Acquisition details | Bequeathed by Archibald McLellan 1854. |
| Principal exhibitions | Venetian Art, New Gallery, London, 1894-5, cat. no. 8; Early Venetian Pictures Exhibition, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1912, cat. no. 34; Paintings from Glasgow Art Gallery, Wildenstein, London, 1980, cat. no. 33. |
| Principal publications | The McLellan Gallery: Catalogue of Pictures Bequeathed to the People of Glasgow by the late Archibald McLellan, Glasgow, 1855, p. 12 'Centre Room: German Pictures', no. 134, as 'German School, 16th Century'; Berenson, B., Venetian Painting, chiefly before Titian, at the Exhibition of Venetian Art, London, 1895, pp.34-35; Ffoulkes, C. J., 'L'esposizione dell'arte venta a Londra', Archivio storico dell'arte, ser. 2, II, p. 78, fig. 7a; Gronau, G., 'L'art venétien à Londres: A propos de l'exposition de la New Gallery', Gazette des Beaux-arts, ser. 3, vol. 13, pp. 257 (ill.), 260; Seidlitz, G. V., 'Die Ausstellung Venezianischer Kunst in der New Gallery zu London im Winter 1894-1895', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, vol. 18, p. 212; Pinnington, E., The Art Collection of the Corporation of Glasgow: Illustrated with Twenty-five Annan Photogravures, Glasgow 1898 (repr.); Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 3rd per., vol. 13, 1895, pp. 257 (repr.), 260, as by Bartolommeo Veneziano; Berenson, B., The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, New York and London, 1897, p. 81; Venturi, A., 'Bartolomeo Veneto', L'arte, vol. 2, 1899, p. 456, fig. 31; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, s. l., 1905, vol. 5, p. 280 (repr., as by Domenico di Bartolomeo Veneziano); D'Achiardi, P., in: Thieme, U. and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künste, 1907-50, vol. 2, 1908, p. 579; Crowe, A. and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Paiting in North Italy, 1871 (London, 1912), vol. 1, p. 300; Venturi, A., Storia dell 'arte italiana, Milan, 1901-40, vol. 7[?], 1915, p. 699; Michalski, E., 'Zur Problematik des Bartolommeo Veneto', Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst, vol. 61, p. 305; Mayer, A. L., 'Zur Bildniskunst des Bartolomeo Veneto', Pantheon, vol. 2, 1928, p. 574; Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 12, as by Bartolomeo Veneto, datable to 1520; Catalogue of Italian Paintings: Illustrations, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums, 1970, p. 103 (ill., as Bartolomeo Veneto); Levi D'Ancona, M., The Garden of the Renaissnace: Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting, Florence, 1977, p. 195; Rama, E., 'Bartolomeo Veneto', Storia della pittura in Italia, Milan, 1987, p. 637; Junkerman, A. C., Bellissima Donna: An Interdisciplinary Study of Venetian Sensuous Half-Length Images of the Sixteenth Century, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1989, p. 57; Pagnotta, L., Bartolomeo Veneto: L'opera completa, Florence, 1997, pp. 100, 228-29, no. 30 (ill.). |
| Notes | Painted label on back of panel: 'Burlington Fine Arts Club/ Early Venetian/ Exhibition./ no. 34/ 1912.'; old blue bordered label on frame, inscribed in ink: '127' (does not correspond to any of the numbers in older gallery catalogues). It has been observed that the panel is very thick in relation to its size. In the gallery catalogues from 1855 to 1888 as German School, from 1892 as Bartolomeo Veneziano which was corrected to Bartolomeo Veneto in 1970. Pagnotta (p. 228-3) mentions seven copies of this picture, among them one in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and one in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan. |
| Rights status | Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums) |
| Author | Dr Heiner Krellig |
