Saint Catherine of Alexandria

This panel showing Saint Catherine of Alexandria is part of the large 'Demidoff Altarpiece' made for the high altar of San Domenico in Ascoli Piceno, east central Italy.

The 4th century Saint Catherine of Alexandria is shown with a martyr's palm and her traditional attribute, the spiked wheel on which she was tortured.

Crivelli has used the acute angle of the wheel to show his skill in foreshortening. Catherine herself, with her elegantly elongated hands, is dressed as a noblewoman in a fine lace-edged chemise and robe decorated with gold thread. Crivelli has placed her on a marble step, almost as if she were a statue on a plinth, except that one foot protrudes over the edge as if breaking out into our space.