Predella Panel from an Altarpiece: St. Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit

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Artist: Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1398–1482)
Medium: Tempera and gold on wood panel
Size: Unframed: 28.9 x 23 cm (11 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.)
Culture: Italy, Siena
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Saint Catherine (1347–1380) was the daughter of a prosperous Sienese cloth dyer. At the age of six, she saw a vision of Christ and thereafter dedicated herself to chastity, penance, and good works. She became extremely popular in Siena when she selflessly cared for the sick and dying victims of the bubonic plague, known as the Black Death. These panels were once part of a predella (or pedestal) of a large altarpiece painted for the Hospital Church of Siena.

The main scene of this altarpiece, showing the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (now preserved in Siena) was ordered by the Pork Butchers Guild (the Pizzicaiuoli) in 1447. The predella was added later when Catherine was canonized in 1461. In the first panel she kneels before an altar and reaches up to choose from the monastic garments offered by Saints Dominic, Augustine, and Francis, all founders of religious orders.

Catherine takes the habit of Saint Dominic, which she wore as the founder of the Sisters of Penance. The second panel shows, at the right, Saint Catherine giving her cloak to a threadbare beggar. The beggar was really Christ in disguise, and at the left he returns the cloak to her. For this act of charity, the cloak perpetually protected its wearer from the cold.