El Greco's Saint Catherine

El Greco, Saint Catherine, 1610-14, oil on canvas, approx 39 x 35 inches

Whenever we go to the Boston MFA I make it a point to view their El Greco holdings, including this depiction of Saint Catherine. Of all the familiar El Greco elements, the Mannerist elongations, the turbulent composition, I think it is his muted yet bold color palette I love best. Here's what the MFA tells us about Catherine.

The legendary Saint Catherine was widely renowned for her learning and wisdom, so much so that the Roman emperor Maxentius wanted her to be his wife. Her Christian faith was so strong that she refused the pagan ruler; in retaliation, he ordered that she be tortured. Catherine was bound to a spiked wheel, but freed when a thunderbolt from heaven shattered it. In this painting, she displays the martyr’s palm while resting her left arm on a fragment of the wheel; her right hand holds the sword with which she was ultimately beheaded.