Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Martin Knoller

Basic information

ID: Ж-87
Author: Martin Knoller
Name: Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Date of creation: 2d half of the 18th c.
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions (height x width, cm): 75.5 x 52.5

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: religious
Plot: Saint Catherine
Provenance: Collection of Leon Pininski
Exposition: Potocki Palace

Information about author

Author: Martin Knoller
Artist's lifetime: 1725–1804
Country: Austria
Biography: Martin Knoller (1725–1804) was an Austrian artist and educator. Born into a family of artists, he studied in Salzburg and at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He was a student of Paul Troger and Michelangelo Unterberger. They are united by common aspirations and artistic trends, characterised by a clarity of drawing and a rejection of excessive mysticism and false dramatisation. Martin Knoller worked in Austria, Germany, and Italy, decorating the palaces and villas of the nobility. The ideas of Johann Winckelmann and Anton Raphael Mengs inspired him. He received the title of court painter. He worked in Milan under the patronage of Count Karl Joseph von Firmian. He created frescoes and altarpiece compositions. A vivid decorative and compositional talent is evident in the artist's frescoes. His unique temperament and high artistic training are successfully reflected in the traditions of Baroque, showcasing a sense of grandeur in drawing, a refined taste, restless diffused light, and cool colour tones. The attentiveness, skilful execution, flowing linework, and perfect understanding of composition, contrast, colour depth, and figure integration in Martin Knoller's work have always been admired. The artist was surrounded by recognition and fame during his lifetime and is regarded as one of the most renowned painters of his time.

Object description

On the stone steps, covered with red fabric, sits a woman with her arms folded across her chest. Her torso is slightly turned to the right, and her head is bowed. The woman is dressed in a long white blouse and wears a knee-length green dress. An angel hovering in the air gently places a wreath of pink and white flowers on the woman's head with his right hand while holding a palm branch in his left hand. Above, angels are depicted on a cloud. To the left of the woman, on a pedestal, is the figure of a man in prayer, depicted with symbols of authority. At the feet of the woman on the ground are the figures of two men crushed beneath the fragments of a broken wheel. Saint Catherine of Alexandria is a Christian saint who was martyred for her faith by Emperor Maximinus. The angels shattered the execution wheel on which the saint was supposed to be tortured. Then, the executioners beheaded Catherine. Saint Catherine was depicted by Raphael Santi, Caravaggio, Lucas Cranach, Guido Reni, Barbara Longhi, Paolo Veronese, Anthony van Dyck, and others.

Legal regulation

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery

Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

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