Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria

About 1350

Paolo Veneziano and workshop
Italian, active 1333–1358/62

Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria and Saints Augustine and Peter
—identifiable by their clothing, attributes, and Latin inscriptions—once flanked a larger central image, probably of a Virgin and Child. The frames were made in the early 20th century, but they reflect the architectural style and motifs typical of 14th century Venetian altarpieces.

The leading Venetian painter of his time, Paolo Veneziano combined sinuous Gothic contours, sumptuous textile patterns, and severe facial types influenced by contemporary Byzantine art. This mix of styles reflects Venice’s role as the center of a vast trade network encompassing Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire and extending as far as East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Status: On View, Gallery 237
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Workshop of Paolo Veneziano
Title: Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria
Place: Venice (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.: 1345–1355
Medium: Tempera on panel
Inscriptions: S/JHS/BAPT/IST [...] (to the right of Saint John the Baptist, in red pigment), SCA/KA/TS/RIN (to the right of Saint Catherine, in red pigment), ECCE/AGN/VS/DEI (on the scroll of Saint John the Baptist, in blue pigment)
Dimensions: 77 × 49.7 cm (30 1/4 × 19 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection
Reference Number: 1947.116
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/59971/manifest.json

Frank Jewett Mather, Jr., “Roerich Museum to Sell Many Old Masters,” Art News 28, 20 (1930), p. 3.
“Roerich Museum Is to Sell Its Old Masters,” Art Digest 4, 11 (1930), p. 15 (ill.).
Daniel Catton Rich, “Two Trecento Venetian Panels,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 24 (1930), pp. 86–89 (ill.).
Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà, “Maestro Paolo Veneziano,” Burlington Magazine 57 (1930), pp. 171, 177.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection, 1932, p. 192.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Oxford, 1932, p. 418.
Bernard Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento, Milan, 1936, p. 359.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School, 2 vols., London, 1957, vol. 1, p. 127.
Daniel Catton Rich, Catalogue of the Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection of Paintings, Sculture, and Drawings, Chicago, 1938, p. 5, no. 1 (ill.).
Evelyn Sandberg-Vavalà, “Maestro Paolo Veneziano: His Paintings in America and Elsewhere,” (1939) in Michelangelo Muraro, Paolo da Venezia, University Park, Pennsylvania, and London, 1970, pp. 97, 98 n. 7.
“Chicago Gets Handsome Gift,” Pictures on Exhibit 9 (April 1947), p. 14.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del trecento, Lezioni tenute alla Facoltà di Lettere dell’Università di Bologna, Bologna, 1955, p. 131.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection, 1961, p. 349.
Hans Huth, “Italienische Kunstwerke im Art Institute von Chicago, USA,” in Miscellanea Bibliothecae Hertzianae, Munich, 1961, p. 516.
Rodolfo Pallucchini, La pittura veneziana del trecento, Venice and Rome, 1964, p. 51, fig. 171.
Brigitte Klesse, Seidenstoffe in der italienischen Malerei des 14. Jahrhunderts, Bern, 1967, p. 269, no. 162d.
Michelangelo Muraro, Paolo da Venezia, University Park, Pennsylvania, and London, 1970, pp. 55, 73 n. 47, 106, fig. 18.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1972, pp. 158, 382, 412, 571.
George Kaftal and Fabio Bisogni, Saints in Italian Art: Iconography of the Saints of North East Italy, Florence, 1978, col. 509, no. 150g.
Christopher Lloyd, with contributions by Margherita Andreotti, Larry J. Feinberg, and Martha Wolff, Italian Paintings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection, Chicago, 1993, pp. 185–89 (ill.).
Robert Gibbs, “Paolo Veneziano (Paolo da Venezia)” in The Dictionary of Art, vol. 24, London, 1996, pp. 32-33.
Mojmír S. Frinta, Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting, Part I, Prague, 1998, p. 130.
Filippo Pedrocco, Paolo Veneziano, Milan, 2003, pp. 111, 116, 130, 192–93, no. 24, ill.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1 to November 1, 1933, no. 87, as School of Lorenzo Veneziano.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1 to November 1, 1934, no. 35, as School of Lorenzo Veneziano.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel Trade and Transformation, September 30, 2006-April 22, 2007, no cat.

Grimaldi, Venice (according to the Roerich Museum sale catalogue); The Roerich Museum, New York; sold American Art Association, New York, March 28, 1930, no. 150 (ill.), as Lorenzo Veneziano, to Robert B. Harshe acting on behalf of Charles H. Worcester (Harshe was listed as the buyer in the published results of the Roerich sale); Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, 1930–47; on loan to the Art Institute from 1933 (according to a document in curatorial files dated October 11, 1945, indicates that this panel was owned by his wife, Mary F. S. Worcester); given to the Art Institute, 1947.

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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.

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Saints John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria

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Department

Artist

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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.

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Inscriptions

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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.

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