Mystical Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria

The theme of the plate is the mystical marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria. The scene is delineated by the neutral background with a green curtain. It features the Virgin and Child on her lap. The child is putting a ring on St Catherine´s finger. The linear character of the brushwork, its coloration, and particularly the physiognomy of the figures, but also the concept of their clothes enable us to indentify the work as one of the Augsburg paintings of the first third of the 17th century, or rather the painting circle of Peter Candid. Both the dress and mantle of the Virgin are trimmed with a gold border, her type of figure, with her head slightly inclined and her eyes aimed at the Child in her lap, is frequently repeated in Peter Candid’s compositions, particularly in the works that were executed before the painter´s return to Munich in 1586.The painting may have been made as a copy after a work of one of Candid’s followers.