Saint Catherine with a Kneeling Male Donor (1400s): Art, History and Details

Saint Catherine with a Kneeling Male Donor (1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This panel was originally part of a much larger composition. Saint Catherine stands behind a donor, a cleric, who faces a missing scene representing either the Crucifixion or the standing Virgin, which would have formed the object of the donor’s devotion. In the lower right corner an inscription identifies the donor as rector de Melle, a clergyman in charge of the parish of the town of Melle in western France. The panel must have been commissioned for a church in this town with which the donor was affiliated. A scroll near the donor reads Miserere mei deus (God have mercy on me).

Object facts

• Title: Saint Catherine with a Kneeling Male Donor
• Date: 1400s
• Culture: France, Poitou, Melle, 15th century
• Type: Glass
• Technique: pot metal, white glass with silver stain
• Dimensions: Overall: 158.7 x 49.2 cm (62 1/2 x 19 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1921.106

A detail from the museum

When donors commissioned art during the medieval period, they often requested their image to be included alongside the divine figures. This anonymous kneeling figure paid for this stained glass window, creating a visual reminder of his generosity and piety.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

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.