Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Bartolomeo Bulgarini's Saint Catherine of Alexandria presents the learned virgin martyr with the wheel of her torture as her identifying attribute, depicted in the elegantly decorative style characteristic of this mid-fourteenth century Sienese master. Bulgarini worked in the generation after Simone Martini and the Lorenzetti brothers, maintaining the Sienese tradition's commitment to gold-rich splendor and refined linear elegance through the second half of the Trecento. Catherine, the patron of philosophers and scholars, was particularly popular in the Sienese intellectual tradition that produced numerous devotional images in her honor.

Executed in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the saint is depicted with her traditional attributes — the wheel of her martyrdom and a palm branch. Bulgarini's style reflects the elegant linearity and refined color harmonies of the mature Sienese school, with careful attention to textile patterns and jeweled ornament.