By Kind Permission of Lancaster University Library
Raphael 's painting of St. Catherine of Alexandria is thought to date from 1507-8, before his move to Rome, a move which marked the 'doom of the arts of Europe' ( Works, 12.150, and see Ruskin on Raphael). Ruskin 's concern here, as in the references to Raphael's Cartoons, is with the detailed realisation of the natural world. He later praises the mouth of St. Catherine ( Works, 4.159, in a passage which is, or ought to be, singularly difficult for modern readers to accept - and again at Works, 4.331).
However, in his 1883 footnotes to Modern Painters II ( Works, 4.331n.) Ruskin says that he much prefers the St. Catherine by the Milanese painter Bernardino Luini (1481 - 1532) to that of Raphael. That is not as condemnatory as might now appear; Bernadino Luini is later praised by Ruskin for 'uniting consummate art-power with untainted simplicity of religious imagination' ( Works, 21.125).
The Raphael St. Catherine has been in the National Gallery in London since 1839 (NG168). A version of the Luini St. Catherine has been in the National Gallery (NG3936) since 1924.
Raffaello Santi 1483-1520
St. Catherine of Alexandria c.1507-8
Oil on wood, 71.5x55.7cm
Collection: National Gallery, London