Saint Catherine of Alexandria

A little of the paint and gold that once covered all of these statues still clings to this one. Behind her head two small angels hold up a cloth of honour, a green hanging edged with braid that, as on all these figures, was once gilded. In one hand she holds a small wheel, and in the other the martyr's palm, which still has its original colour and, unexpectedly, clusters of gilded dates carved true to life. Her dress was red and her mantle blue, and the large brooch on her breast probably shows the saint herself before Christ enthroned.

Catherine, in her legend, was a learned princess of Alexandria who outargued the emperor's philosophers, and the spiked wheel built to kill her broke apart. This figure comes from the church of Santa Caterina at Chievo, on the Adige just upstream of Verona, and the museum counts it among the most refined of the group, the frontal pose brought to life by the diagonal turn of the head.