Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine

The ring, at the size of a book

A mystic marriage puts an attribute into circulation inside the picture: the Christ child sets a ring on a kneeling woman's finger, and the ring stays. 6 titles in this catalogue describe that episode, which makes it the most repeated scene attached to the name Catherine — and the title, as usual, does not say which Catherine. The wheel would settle it; a record listing date, size and shelf cannot.

What the record holds

The catalogue dates the work to 1531 and gives the National Gallery, London, UK as its location. The dimensions are 74.2 x 57.2 cm, a small upright — a picture held or hung close, not an altarpiece. It is filed under group portraiture, Religion, cultural heritage and mythological cultural heritage, and Fantasy, with Mannerism Late Renaissance as the style and Italian as the nationality; the measured colour family is brown.

What changes when the picture gets small

The same subject appears in this collection at altar scale and at this scale, and the attribute behaves differently in each. On a large panel the objects have to be legible from a distance, so they are made explicit and placed clear of the figures. At 74.2 x 57.2 cm the viewer is close enough that a ring — an object a centimetre across — can carry the identification on its own. The convention survives the change of size; what changes is how much help it needs.