St Catherine

This tall, narrow panel was never meant to hang alone. Together with Saint Barbara beside it, it formed one of the two wings of an altarpiece painted in Antwerp around 1510 to 1520. The centre panel, a Holy Family with angels making music, is now in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, so the altarpiece is split between two countries.

Catherine of Alexandria was one of the most popular women saints of the late Middle Ages. She holds the sword of her execution, and at her feet lies the spiked wheel on which she was to be tortured, broken, as her legend says, before it could harm her. The painter spent as much care on her magnificent gown as on the countryside stretching out behind her.