Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: St. Catherine of Siena and Female Devotee
  • Creator: Vanni, Andrea, painter
  • Description: Catherine wears the white habit and black cloak of a Mantellata (Third Order Dominican) and holds a lily, the symbol of her purity. Her hands bear signs of the stigmata, which Catherine reportedly received on April 1, 1375. A young woman dressed in secular clothes, possibly the image donor, kneels at Catherine's feet and kisses her fingers.
  • Source: WikiMedia Commons
  • Rights: Public domain
  • Subject (See Also): Catherine of Siena, Saint Donor Portraits Flowers Stigmata
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Date: circa 1380-1383
  • Related Work:
  • Current Location:
  • Original Location: Siena, Basilica of San Domenico
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Paintings
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Frescoes (paintings)
  • Donor: Laywoman; Giovanna Piccolomini, Italian noble woman who died in 1383
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): //
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Diana Norman suggests that the donor is presented in a pose typical of widows (Siena, Florence, and Padua: Case Studies. Yale University Press, 1995. Page 264). Ingeborg Bähr identifies the donor as Giovanna Piccolomini who left a bequest for a chapel dedicated to Catherine. Because Catherine had not yet been canonized, Bähr suggests that a chaple was not deemed appropriate and this painting was substituted to meet the bequest (Das Katherinenfresko in San Domenico in Siena: eine Stiftung aus dem Schülerkreis der Heiligen? Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz XXVIII/3 (1984) 385-388).