Saints Catherine and Mary Magdalene

This panel depicting Saints Catherine and Mary Magdalene by Konrad Witz, painted around 1440, is housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg. Witz, active in Basel and Geneva, was one of the most innovative painters north of the Alps, known for his remarkably solid, volumetric figures and pioneering naturalism. The two female saints were among the most popular in late medieval devotion—Catherine as patron of scholars and Magdalene as the model of penitent redemption.

Witz's distinctive style features powerfully modeled, almost sculptural figures with heavy, angular drapery folds, strong directional lighting, and a material solidity that distinguishes his work from the more decorative Gothic tradition.