Title: Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Date: c.1513
Medium: Ink on paper
Signed: lower right: AD(?) [in monogram]
Credit Line: Purchased, 1898
Object Number: NGI.2336
DescriptionThis fine ink drawing shows the martyr St. Catherine holding the sword with which she was beheaded, but her traditional attribute, a wheel, is missing. Although differing in detail, the drawing appears to be the model for the figure of St. Catherine in Von Kulmbach's 'Tucher Altarpiece' (completed 1513) in St. Sebald's Church, Nuremberg. The painting's composition was derived from a drawing by Dürer, dated 1511, now in the Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin. The authorship of this sheet remains contentious.
ProvenanceBasan; H. G. Gutekunst, Stuttgart, 11 April 1893, lot 1320; Messrs Colnaghi; purchased, Colnaghi's, London, 1898
Exhibition HistoryMeister um Albrecht Dürer, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremburg, 1961
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Drawings from the National Gallery of Ireland, Wildenstein, London/New York, 1967
Master European Drawings From the Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, Ackland Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre, Colorado; Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park; Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin; Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; The Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minnesota; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California; National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 1983"