Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1450): Art, History and Details

Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1450) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Carolino da Viterbo (Italian).

The work and its context

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

In his right hand, the Christ child grasps a stem of roses. The beauty and fragrance of roses symbolize heaven, while their thorny stems allude to the crown of thorns and Christ's suffering. The bird he holds in his left hand symbolizes the human soul. The elaborate haloes with Latin inscriptions identify the figures and help organize the composition. The names of Christ, Saint Jerome, and Saint Catherine of Alexandria appear in abbreviated form. The Madonna's halo proclaims her worthiness to bear the Son of God: "Hail, full of grace," while the inscription at the top is one of her most popular titles: "Merciful Mother."

Object facts

• Title: Virgin and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine of Alexandria
• Date: c. 1450
• Creator attribution: Carolino da Viterbo (Italian)
• Culture: Italy, Siena(?)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: tempera and gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 68.5 x 47.5 x 5 cm (26 15/16 x 18 11/16 x 1 15/16 in.); Unframed: 59.7 x 39 cm (23 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Medieval Art
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1956.719

A detail from the museum

The figure to the right of the Christ child is Saint Jerome, identifiable by the rock he holds to his chest.

Collection credit

The Fanny Tewksbury King Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Marle, Raimond van, and Charlotte van Marle. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1923.
• Eglington, Guy. "Chiesa Collection of Italian and Flemish Masterpieces Goes on View at the American Art Galleries." ARTnews XXIV, 7 (November 21. 1925): 14. Attributed to Sano di Pietro.
• Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972. Attributed to a follower of Sano di Pietro.

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.