Turin, Museo Pietro Accorsi, La donna nella pittura italiana del Seicento e Settecento : il genio e la grazia, March 28-July 27, 2003, no. 79;
Ariccia, Palazzo Chigi, La "schola" del Caravaggio: Dipinti dalla Collezione Koelliker, October 13, 2006-February 11, 2007, no. 46;
Nantes, Musée des beaux-arts; Besançon,  Musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie, Nov. 21, 2008-June 29, 2009, no. 45.

E. Schleier, Simon Vouet St. Catherine of Alexandria, in "Simon Vouet 1590 – Paris – 1649", exhibition catalogue, London 1989, fig. 19;
G. Papi, "Il 'David' Spada di Orazio Gentileschi, opera di collaborazione", in Paragone, 46 (633), November 2002, p. 47, fig. 75;
A. Cottino, La donna nella pittura italiana del Seicento e Settecento : il genio e la grazia, exhibition catalogue, Turin 2003, pp. 206-207, cat. no. 79, reproduced; 
G. Papi, La "schola" del Caravaggio: Dipinti dalla Collezione Koelliker, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2006, pp. 168-171, cat. no. 46, reproduced in color;
S. Benedetti, "The Schola of Caravaggio. Ariccia", in Burlington Magazine, February 2007, p. 127, fig. 58;
D. Jacquot, Simon Vouet (les annes italiennes 1613/1627), exhibition catalogue, Nantes 2008, p.161, ca🏅t. no. 45.

Unp💫ublished prior to 1989, the present work is a beautiful example of Vouet's output during his Italian sojurn, a period which brought him to Venice, Rome and Genoa during the formative years of his career (1612-1627).

Throughout Vouet's Italian period, depictions of St. Catherine were undoubtedly among his favorite, as evidenced by the large number of works executed, in varying format, and with a number of compositional differences. The earliest depiction of St. Catherine (private collection, Genoa), also half-length, signed and dated 1621, was executed by Vouet in Genoa for Giovanni Carlo Doria. The model for that picture is older than that in the present work, which features an uncharacteristically young girl. In addition to the Genoa St. Catherine, the present work may be compared to the picture which now hangs in the Slovenská Národná Galéria, Bratislava. That work, datable to 1625, also depicts the saint wearing a garland of flowers on her head. Additionally, the ceremonial sword which St. Catherine rests her hand upon is qu𝄹ite similar in both pictures, though much more prominent here.

The prominence of the sword and its unusual hilt is not an insignificant fact. The same hilt is found in a work depicting David with the Head of Goliath (Galleria Spada, Rome), traditionally ascribed to Orazio Gentileschi. Giovanni Papi has argued that the hilts were taken from the same model and that it is possible that Vouet owned the sword itself, and furthermore, argues that based on stylistic comparison, Vouet collaborated with Gentilieschi on the execution of the David.¹ Additionally, Sergio Benedetti notes that the hilt in the present work covers a much simpler version, an observation which further demonstrates the significance of the ornate hilt now visible.²

1.  see literature, Papi 2006, pp. 168-171.
2.  see literature, Benedetti 2007, p. 128.