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Caravaggio's Saint Catherine of Alexandria is one of the paintings in the museum whose fully documented provenance allows us to trace its history almost from the day it was painted until the present. The painting was listed among the possessions in the inventory made at the time of the death of Caravaggio's first important patron in Rome, Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, and also in that of his heir Uguccione del Monte made in 1627. In that year the painting was inherited by Alessandro del Monte. In 1628, the date of another inventory, it was sold, together with other paintings, to pay off a series of debts incurred by the Cardinal's heir. According to the information available, it was acquired by Cardinal Antonio Barberini, appearing in the inventories of the Barberini family's possessions in 1644, 1671 and 1817. Bellori recounts in his Lives (1672) that Caravaggio painted for Cardinal del Monte "a kneeling Saint Catherine, leaning on a wheel," saying of the saint and of the lute player (also formerly in the Barberini collection and now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York), that both "works show a more dense colouring, Michele now starting to strengthen the shadows." Having left the Barberini collection the Saint Catherine appeared on the art market and was acquired for the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection from a gallery in Lucerne in 1934.
The painting has been the object of numerous scholarly studies since Bellori mentioned it in 1672; in the lengthy bibliography on the painting the attribution as well as the date of execution have been discussed, as well as the way in which Caravaggio treated the subject. In 1916 one of the great scholars of Caravaggio, Roberto Longhi, noted that the painting might be by Orazio Gentilleschi, but in later works he gave the attribution to Caravaggio. Nonetheless, the painting appeared as a work by the school of Caravaggio in an exhibition in 1922. That year Marangoni cautiously suggested that it was autograph due to its quality. This opinion enjoys the widespread and unqualified affirmation of modern critics.
The canvas has been dated to slightly before the major cycle which Caravaggio painted for the Contarelli chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, at a moment when his style was beginning to change towards more compact forms built up with a powerful chiaroscuro which emphasises the expressive value. The saint, who is richly dressed, in fitting with her status as a princess, and kneeling on a sumptuous damask cushion, has been painted as she turns her gaze to the spectator. Her clothes have been related to those of the Repentant Magdalen in the Galleria Doria Pamphilj in Rome. The chromatic range of the clothing, juxtaposing violets and blues, recalls the tonal combinations used in the north of Italy. Saint Catherine poses, in order to make herself indentifiable, with her traditional attributes: the toothed, broken wheel, the sword with which she was decapitated and the palm alluding to her martrydom. The play of oblique lines established between the objects of her suffering, the enormously effective slant of her body, the direction of her gaze and the ray of light which illuminates her, create an ensemble to which the strong modelling of the chiaroscuro undoubtedly contributes.
With regard to the identification of the model, two names have been suggested: Caterina Campani, the wife of the architect Onorio Longhi, a hypothesis which has been rejected, and Fillide Melandroni, a prostitute of Caravaggio's circle.
Mar Borobia
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