The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine

A prominent fresco painter working primarily in Florence, Benozzo Gozzoli increasingly relied on assistants in his later years to execute works based on his designs. This altarpiece depicts Saint Catherine of Alexandria's vision of her celestial marriage with the infant Jesus Christ, witnessed by the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, Saint Ursula, Saint Agnes and a host of angels. The predella panel below the main composition shows Christ as the Man of Sorrows at center, flanked by Saints Onuphrius and Jerome on the left and Saints Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr on the right. The inclusion of these last two saints suggests this altarpiece commissioned for a church or monastery of the Dominican order.