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Notes
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A young woman leans on the hilt of a sword and there is what appears to be a fragment of a wheel next to her shoulder. She is probably Saint Catherine of Alexandria, the fourth-century martyr who was tortured by being bound to a wheel studded with iron spikes and later beheaded. We don’t know who painted this picture, but it is quite sophisticated in its handling. The soft modelling of the clasped hands is quite different to the crisp modelling of the white undershirt. The figure appears all the more three-dimensional for being set against a plain dark background. Although the painting is now classified as Italian, it may be by a French artist working in Rome in the seventeenth century, perhaps in the circle of Simon Vouet or Carlo Saraceni.
Title
A Female Figure resting on a Sword (Saint Catherine of Alexandria?)
Date
probably 18th C
Medium
Oil on wood
Measurements
H 53.3 x W 45.7 cm
Accession number
NG4177
Acquisition method
Presented by F.D. Lycett Green through The Art Fund, 1926
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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