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Your galleryPredella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit
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Find Saint Dominic, in a black cloak over white and holding lilies, then see which of the three saints Catherine’s raised hand reaches toward.
Catherine of Siena, a cloth dyer’s daughter who cared for victims of the plague, was made a saint in 1461. This scene comes from the predella, the row of small pictures along the bottom, that was then added to an altarpiece ordered in 1447 for Siena’s hospital church. Kneeling at an altar, she chooses among the habits held out by three founders of religious orders: Dominic, Augustine and Francis.
tempera and gold on wood panel · Framed: 35.6 x 29.5 x 4.5 cm · Cleveland Museum of Art · Late Gothic and Early Renaissance
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Details and source
- Museum title
- Predella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit
- Artist
- Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, c. 1403–1482)
- Date
- 1460s
- Medium
- tempera and gold on wood panel
- Dimensions
- Framed: 35.6 x 29.5 x 4.5 cm (14 x 11 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 28.9 x 23 cm (11 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Image license
- CC0 1.0 · Public domain
- Museum record
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Artist’s life 1398–1482
View in the AtlasGaller’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.