Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers

Prints and Drawings

1562/63

Livio Agresti
Italian, 1508–1579

This highly finished sheet is a compositional proposal, or modello, for the high altar of Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome. Commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cesi for the left wall of the sanctuary, the painting was begun by Agresti in 1562/63 but finished by Federico Zuccaro in 1571/72. The subject is a conflation of two scenes taken from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. Above, Catherine asserts the tenets of Christianity before the Emperor Maxentius and 50 pagan orators assembled to argue against her; below, she is attended by an angel after the orators were converted and Maxentius had her imprisoned as punishment.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Livio Agresti
Title: Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1562–1563
Medium: Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk, on cream laid paper, pieced
Dimensions: Sight: 50.5 × 39.5 cm (19 15/16 × 15 9/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of John A. Bross in memory of Louise Smith Bross
Reference Number: 2014.1140
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/223800/manifest.json

Louise Smith Bross, The Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia: A Study of the Development of Art, Architecture, and Patronage in Counter-Reformation Rome, Ph.D. dissertation University of Chicago, 1994, p. 373, fig, 257, p. 885
Louise Smith Bross, “She is among all virgins the queen…,” in Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl (eds.), Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 280–97, pl. 60.

Sold by Michael Miller/Lucy Vivant Fine Arts, Ltd., New York, to John A. Bross, Mar. 1994; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2014.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Suggested Terms

Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers

Currently Off View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Medium

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.