圣凯瑟琳与诸圣的神秘婚配

Lorenzo Lotto signed and dated this in 1524, while he was working in Bergamo, in northern Italy. A local merchant, Felice Cassotti, ordered it, and it was meant for a very particular room: the wedding chamber of his son. That choice explains the subject. Saint Catherine kneels and the Christ child slips a ring onto her finger, the moment known as her mystic marriage, a wedding in heaven hung above a real one on earth. Lotto fills the scene with the warm reds and greens and the soft, direct gazes he was known for, closer and more human than the grand altarpieces of his Venetian rivals. Catherine holds the ring in her left hand, the same finger a bride would.