Saint Catherine of Alexandria

The present painting of Saint Catherine is stylistically related to two other known works, a Madonna and Child and a Saint Cecilia(?), both in the Galleria Spada in Rome that had previously been attributed to Gian Francesco Guerrieri by Zeri and Emiliani. The two paintings were also at one point given to Angelo Caroselli by Alfred Moir (The Italian Followers of Caravaggio, 1967, Vol. II, plates 64 and 65, p. 64.) Guerrieri and Caroselli were both known to have traveled from their native Emilia Romana to Rome, where they encountered the work of Caravaggio and his circle. Subsequently, Zeri has given the Saint Cecilia (now known as a Luteplayer) to Artemisia Gentileschi (Moir, Vol. I, p. 55, footnote 139), while Emiliani reattributed the Madonna to a follower of Giovanni Baglione. Still more recently, both the Luteplayer and the Madonna were included in the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition at the Casa Buonarotti in Florence in 1991 (cat. nos. 8 and 13).

We are grateful to Keith Christiansen for confirming the attribution to Artemisia from transparencies and for dating it to her Florentine period. An alternative attribution to Paolo Domenico Finoglia (Naples c. 1590-1645 Conversano) has been also suggested.