Saints Catherine and Mary Magdalene

This panel by Konrad Witz, dated around 1440, shows Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Mary Magdalene seated together in a cloister. Both are identified by their usual attributes: Mary Magdalene holds her jar of ointment, while Catherine has her wheel and a book, here a book held by a girdle. Despite the rich robes, jewels and gilded halos, Witz gives the two women the realistic faces of young peasant girls and arranges them stiffly, almost like actors on a stage. The folds of the fabric reveal the influence of contemporary Netherlandish painting, whereas the spatial perspective seems to be Witz's own bold experiment, opening the background onto a street painted with striking realism. The panel may have belonged to an unfinished altarpiece, probably a triptych, though it could also have been conceived as an independent work from the start. It is now held at the Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame in Strasbourg.

Painter

Konrad Witz

Date

1440

Medium

oil paint, fir panel

Dimensions

161 × 130 cm

Museum

Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Catherine of Alexandria, Mary Magdalene

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