Saint Catherine of Alexandria, a 3rd-century martyr, can be identified from the wheel set with iron spikes that stands beside her, and the sword she formerly held in her hand—the instruments of her torture. This sculpture is one of a set that decorated the refectory of a Benedictine abbey ruled by two abbesses during the second half of the 17th century.
Alongside other depictions of female saints, “strong” women from the Old Testament and feminine allegories, she helped provide nuns with a model of virtue, courage, and perfection. Glorifying the figure of womanhood, this sculpture—like the whole decor of the place—was designed to serve the prestige of the person who commissioned it: Abbess Antoinette de Chaulnes, who succeeded her sister, Anne, in 1672.
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