The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine

Described in the 1839 sale catalogue as the 'chef d'oeuvre of Marinari' (loc.cit.), this painting is recorded in the collection of the Rev. John Sanford as early as 1833. Born in England, Sanford amassed his collection, which consisted primarily of Italian paintings, when he resided in Florence in the 1830s, capitalising on the financial misfortunes that befell many old Florentine families. Upon returning to England, he must have decided that his collection was too large for his London residence at. 4 Connaught Place, and proceeded to sell nearly 150 paintings in these Rooms in March 1839, including the Marinari. However, he had records made of these works in the form of small scale copies, mostly in watercolour. The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine was painted in watercolour by Giovanni Gozzini, while in Florence (One small difference between the present picture and the drawing are the cherubs; these are most likely a later addition). Four volumes of these watercolours, along with paintings from the original collection, were inherited by Sanford's only child, Anna, wife of Fredrick Henry Paul Methuen, the future 2nd Lord Methuen, and subsequently passed into the Methuen family collection at Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England.

Many of the paintings owned by the Rev. John Sanford are now in museums, amongst them Salvatore Rosa’s Self-Portrait and Philosophy, now in the National Gallery, London, and Piero di Cosimo's Young Saint John the Baptist, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

We are grateful to Francesca Baldassari for confirming the attribution to Onorio Marinari, on the basis of photographs. We are also grateful to Silvia Benassai for confirming that the picture is likely to be the same as the one published by her in 2011 (op. cit.).