Picart after Correggio Mystic Marriage of St Catherine {1879} NGV [PR]

Picart, Étienne (1632-1721), after Correggio (1489-1534; Italian)
Jesus Christ espouse Ste Catherine [The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine]
Engraving
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.6-1)

= Levey gift, cat.26

Correggio’s panel was painted c.1526-7 for a friend of the painter, a doctor in Modena. Later, it was owned by Cardinal Barberini and Cardinal Mazarin, and then acquired by Louis XIV in 1665. It shows St Catherine of Alexandria united with Christ, a theme popular in the late medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods.

This was one of two engravings of this subject included in the Tableaux du roi: see also Scotin after Turchi Mystic Marriage of St Catherine 1679 {1879} NGV [PR]. 

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

For the Melbourne impression, see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/37666/ (not reproduced; as by an unknown engraver). Cf. Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.1; Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1869), p.7; and for another imression, in the French National Library, see http://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/9200365/BibliographicResource_30000944701185.html (reproduced)

For Correggio’s painting, see e.g. Louvre cat.II (1981), p.168, Inv.41