The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine

Artist Alessandro Magnasco (Italian, 1667 - 1749)

Date18th century

MediumWhite and gray gouache over charcoal on gray paper

DimensionsUnframed: 12 7/8 x 7 13/16 inches (32.7 x 19.84 cm)
Framed: 21 x 17 x 1 1/4 inches (53.34 x 43.18 x 3.18 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number47-93

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Cinque pittori del settecento: Ghislandi, Crespi, Magnasco, Bazzani, Ceruti, Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, April 1943, no. 57, as il Matrimonio Mistico di S. Caterina.

Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums, Detroit Institute of Arts, June 1-September 15, 1950, no. 33, as The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749), J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, February 2-March 26, 1967; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI, April 19-May 13, 1967, no. 2, as Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 34, as The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, unnumbered, as The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.

Religious Subjects: A Variety of Approaches, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 8-October 16, 2011, as The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Saints & Sinners, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 15-December 13, 2020.

Fierce Women: Artemisia Gentileschi and the Women Worthies, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 25-July 23, 2023.

Gallery Label

Saint Catherine is shown here accepting a symbolic ring of betrothal from the infant Christ. Holding her martyr's palm, she was sentenced to death on the wheel, a medieval instrument of torture. However, angels intervened before the sentence could be carried out and broke the wheel, a fragment of which may be seen in the foreground of the drawing. Magnasco's combination of black chalk with gray and white gouache-an opaque, water-based pigment mixed with a gum-creates a flickering effect similar to the one created by the lively brushwork of his paintings.

Provenance

With Ferruccio Ildebrando Bossi, Genoa, Italy;

Purchased from Bossi, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1947.

Published References

Alessandro Morandotti, Cinque pittori del settecento: Ghislandi, Crespi, Magnasco, Bazzani, Ceruti, exh. cat. (Rome: Palazzo Massimo alle Colonne, 1943), 77, (repro.), as il Matrimonio Mistico di S. Caterina.

Benno Geiger, Magnasco (Bergamo, Italy: Istituto Italiano D’Arti Grafiche, 1949), 163, (repro.), as Le nozze mistiche di Santa Caterina.

John S. Newberry, Loan Exhibition of Old Master Drawings from Midwestern Museums, exh. cat. (Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950), unpaginated, (repro.), as The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Alessandro Magnasco (1667-1749), exh. cat. (Louisville, KY: J.B. Speed Art Museum, 1967), unpaginated, (repro.), as Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.

Mary Newcome, Genoese Baroque Drawings, exh. cat. (Binghamton, NY: University Art Gallery, State University of New York, 1972), 50, (repro.), as Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Fausta Franchini Guelfi, Alessandro Magnasco (Campomorone, Genoa, Italy: Industrie Grafiche Editoriali, Fratelli Pagano. S.p.a., 1977), 182n62, as Matrimonio mistico.

Old Master Drawings, Including the Property of the Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, Texas (London: Sotheby’s, July 6, 1987), unpaginated, as Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.

Marco Bona Castellotti, ed., Alessandro Magnasco, 1667-1749, exh. cat. (Milan: Electa, 1996), 276-277, (repro.), as Matrimonio di santa Caterina.

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 120-22, (repro.), as The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.