Miniature from a Compendium of Saints' Lives: Saint Catherine of Alexandria Disputing with the Fifty Philosophers (c. 1200–1210): Art, History and Details

Miniature from a Compendium of Saints' Lives: Saint Catherine of Alexandria Disputing with the Fifty Philosophers (c. 1200–1210) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This miniature depicts an incident in the life of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, one of the early martyrs of the Christian Church, who was renowned for her learning. In AD 305, the Roman emperor Maxentius (the crowned figure seated at the left) attempted to compel Catherine (seated at the right) to renounce her faith by forcing her to engage in a disputation or debate with the fifty pagan philosophers of Alexandria (signified by their pointed hats). The clever Catherine, however, succeeded in converting the philosophers to Christianity. In a rage, Maxentius ordered her execution. This miniature probably came from a manuscript of saints' lives or possibly a martyrology. The subject of this miniature would have appealed in the scholastic climate of northeastern France. Its dating and place of origin are supported by its strong stylistic relationship to the famous Ingeborg Psalter of about 1200, now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly.

Object facts

• Title: Miniature from a Compendium of Saints' Lives: Saint Catherine of Alexandria Disputing with the Fifty Philosophers
• Date: c. 1200–1210
• Culture: Northeastern France, early 13th Century
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: tempera and gold on vellum
• Dimensions: Overall: 16 x 10.5 cm (6 5/16 x 4 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Manuscript Illuminations
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1997.12

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Major Neoclassical Marble, Rare Korean Sculpture, Other Recent CMA Acquisitions Now on View,” April 16, 1997, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Fliegel, Stephen N., "Between Romanesque and Gothic", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 07, September 1997

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.