Explore the History of this artwork.
Several old copies after this painting elaborate the composition to show Saint Catherine kneeling either full-length or three-quarter length. Usually this sort of evidence indicates that an original painting has been cut down, but that is not the case here: cusping is apparent at all the edges, revealing the stretched edge of the original canvas. Copies of the painting are all roughly the same same. Most scholars accept the painting as autograph (that is, painted entirely by Correggio) and date it as one of his last works, c. 1530–32.
The same composition—Saint Catherine half-length, resting on a wheel and holding the palm of a martyr—is found in the work of several north Italian painters, including Cesare de Sesto, Garofalo, Dosso Dossi, and Lorenzo Lotto. There is also a similar, earlier painting by Bernardino Luini in the National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen, which may have been inspired by the work or ideas of Luini's master, Leonardo da Vinci.
National Gallery of Denmark Bernardino Luini Saint Catherine Lorenzo Lotto Correggio Cesare de Sesto Garofalo Leonardo da Vinci National Gallery Dosso Dossi