The Marriage of Saint Catherine

Anthony Van Dyck

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by Antony Van Dyck. The drawing shows a group of figures with a seated woman towards the left holding a child and another woman to the right facing these two. The woman on the left is wearing a veil and the child is stretched out with his head towards the left. The child is holding the forth finger of the right hand of the woman on the right, who has her head bowed and her left hand on her knee. This woman has a garland around her head. Behind her on the right are four men wearing robes and there are another two men in the background: one in the centre and one on the left. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 16 ANTONY VAN DYCK (b. 1599; d. 1641) THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE Collection of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth (from the Collection of N. A. Flinck). Black chalk, pen and sepia, sepia wash, and Indian ink wash. 18.2 x 28 cm. (7 1/8 x 11 in.) A copy or repetition of the Chatsworth drawing, in the Louvre (Mariette and His de la Salle Collections), is reproduced in Jules Guiffrey's Van Dyck (1882), p. 103, and in Chennevières' Les Dessins du Louvre, where it is said to be a study for a picture in the Durazzo Collection at Genoa. A different sketch of the composition is in the Kunsthalle at Bremen. St. Catherine is in the same position; the other figures are brought closer together, and the whole composition is more concentrated. Yet another drawing resembling this in many respects is reproduced in Gutekunst's Stuttgart Sale-Catalogue, No 50 (Straeter sale, 1898), No. 1107. The Child is sitting upright; St. Joseph is omitted, but in his stead an angel stands between the Virgin and the youthful figure at a lower level. St. Catherine does not hold a palm; the two figures just behind her in the Chatsworth drawing are wanting, but those on the extreme right remain. C. D."