Acquired by Baron Kraus Alexander in the 18th century;
Thence by descent to the present owner.

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The reverse of the soft wood support has had earlier worm infestation; this has been treated and compromised wood removed and replaced . Some of the worm holes have come through to the paint surface where they have been filled and restored out. The paint surface is raised, particularly to the lower section, but has been consolidated and is now stable. The gold ground is well preserved; there are small areas of minor abrasion and some small loss, but overall, this layer is in good original condition. The flesh tones are generally in good condition; there has been some thinning of the flesh colours and these areas have been augmented where the ground colour has come to dominate. Some of the larger dark shrinkage cracks have been reduced. The red of Saint Catherine's dress has been substantially augmented. The raised paint layer has been abraded and the vulnerable pigment and glazing compromised, revealing the pale ochre ground beneath. Restoration has been applied here to reduce effect of the ground layer. The spiked wheels have, likewise, been strengthened, although the spikes themselves are mostly original. The golden hems of the draperies are in good original condition and many finer details are well preserved. The colours saturate well beneath a varnish that is not discoloured."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The present panel, depicting the intriguingly elegant full-length figure of St. Catherine of Alexandria, is of quite mysterious authorship.  It seems probable, however, that its unknown author was active in Tuscany, but in all likelihood not in one of the three major artistic centres, Florence, Siena and Pisa, alt🐓hough clearly he must have been responsive to the artistic developments in these major cities.

The gothic sway of this female figure, with a tight waist, the elegant gothic flow of the draperies and golden hems, together with the saint's somewhat fragile physiognomy, seem to respond to the aesthetic ideals of the late followers of Simone Martini. They recall the works of the so called Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna, and in particular the elegant figure of Saint Corona in the Royal Museum in Copenhagen, part of the Saint Victor altarpiece which was painted together with Bartolomeo Bulgarini in 1351 for the Cathedral of Siena. In those years this gothic tendency flowered also in Florence through artists such as Andrea di Bonaiuto (see his SS Agnes and Domitilla, Florence, Galleria dell' Ac🔯cademia)🔯  and later Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci.

Nevertheless the particular, much refined features of the lovely broad rounded face and the slightly distracted, yet sensitive facial expression resulting from the finely drawn slit eyes, as well as the quite pale flesh tones, point towards typologies which were developed by artists active in the Lucca and Pistoia region. It seems that this particular typology was born from a tradition initiated by the early Pistoian painters such as the so called Master of 1310 (see, for example, his Saint Irene, in the panel with scenes from the life of St. Irene; New York, private collection)¹ and the Master of 1336.²  The anonymous painter appears to have tried here to soften the incisive drawing of the above mentioneꦬd Pistoian masters in order to attain a somewhat softer appearance, as if he aimed at a harmonization of his art with the Florentine tendencies of Bernardo Daddi's late works around 1347/48.

The painter's originality is further enhanced by the placement of the saint between two wheels, which appears to be unique in representations of her at this time; the wheels are arranged as if they where the thorny arms of a throne, the tℱhrone of her martyrdom and, in so doing, the artist has succeeded in subtly defining the space in which the saint stands.

This fine painting belongs therefore to a rather restricted group of eclectic paintings of outstanding quality, created outside the main centres of Tuscan art production. In much the same way as his mysterious contemporary, the Master of the S. Paolo Perkins, who seems to have worked in the same region (Lucca-Pistoia),³ the artist here offers a fine synthesis of various artistic tendencies developed in the major artistic centres (Siena, Florence , Pisa)  around 1350. Even though this painting should be dated into the sixth decade of the 14^th century,💙 the artist created here an image, which seems to anticipate artistic solutions noticeable considerably later, in the late gothic painting💙s in Siena and Florence around 1410 and 1420.

We are extremely grateful to Dr. Gaudenz Freuler for the above catalogꦇue entry. 

1.  G. Freuler, Künder der Wunderbaren Dinge, Frühe Italienische Malerei in der Schweiz und Liechtenstein, Lugano 1991 p. 184, cat. no. 68, reproduced p. 185.
2.  G. Freuler, op. cit., 1991, p. 186, cat. no. 69.
3.  F. Zeri, La Collezione Federico Mason Perkins, Assisi 1988, pp.70 ff.