Sacred Images
From Scripture, Legend & History
  1. Beham, The Expulsion from Paradise
  2. Sadeler, Jubal and His Musical Instruments
  3. Lodewyk , Hagar in the Wilderness
  4. Pencz, Lot and His Daughters
  5. Bos or Bossius, Jacob's Dream
  6. Tempesta , The Egyptians Drowning in the Red Sea
  7. Swanevelt , Balaam and the Ass
  8. van der Gouwen, Gideon's Battle with the Midianites
  9. van Leyden, David in Prayer
  10. Galle, Solomon Building the Temple
  11. Collaert, Solomon Bringing the Ark to the Temple
  12. Martin, The Dedication of the Temple
  13. Hollar, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba
  14. Saenredam, The Prophet Ahijah Tearing His Cloak
  15. Hirschvogel, Elisha Raises the Son of the Shunemite Woman
  16. Collaert, The Triumph of Judith
  17. de Bruyn, Ezekiel's Vision
  18. de Bruyn, St. John the Baptist
  19. Maratta, The Visitation
  20. Sadeler, The Nativity
  21. Kirchner, The Journey of the Magi
  22. Goudt, The Flight into Egypt
  23. Mola, The Rest on the Flight into Egyp
  24. Callot, The Massacre of the Innocents
  25. Sadeler, The Temptation of Christ
  26. Altdorfer, Christ's Entry into Jerusalem
  27. Collaert, July, with The Parable of the Good Shepherd
  28. Graf, The Cursing of the Fig Tree
  29. Collaert, October, with The Parable of the Wicked Tenants
  30. Wechtlin, Christ Before Caiaphas
  31. Romano, Ecce Homo
  32. Bolswert, Christ Crowned with Thorns
  33. Corinth, Kreuztragung
  34. Ostendorfer, Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin and St. John
  35. Sadeler , Lamentation of Three Angels (Corpus Christi)
  36. Forain, La Rencontre sous la Voûte (1re planche)
  37. Forain, La Fraction du Pain
  38. Camuccini, Thomas Touching the Wound of the Risen Christ
  39. Master AG, The Death of the Virgin
  40. Anonymous Italian,The Man of Sorrows, Half Length
  41. Puccinelli , The Sudarium
  42. Aldegrever, Madonna and Child Seated on a Grassy Bank
  43. Cranach, The Martyrdoms of the 12 Apostles
  44. Durer, The Patron Saints of Austria
  45. Novelli, Saint Francis and Saint Dominic in the Clouds
  46. Lesueur & de Caylus, The Virgin and Child Appearing
  47. der Leeuw , The Martyrdom of St. Catherine
  48. de Leu, Solitudo sive Vitae Foeminarum Anachoritarum
  49. Anonymous Flemish, Humilis Animus (The Humble Heart)
  50. van Somer, Sister Marie-Jeanne-des-Anges
  51. Forain. L'Imploration devant la Grotte, Lourdes

47. Willem van der Leeuw (ca. 1603-1665) after
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
The Martyrdom of St. Catherine

(click on image to print)
der Leeuw , The Martyrdom of St. Catherine

The Martyrdom of St. Catherine

Engraving, Hollstein 7, Dutuit (Rubens) 21, 538 x 403 mm. A fine impression on laid paper with narrow margins, the left margin ragged, not affecting the image or borderline. The traditional attribute of St. Catherine is the spiked wheel, which is nowhere in evidence in this image. Additional attributes include the ring, symbol of her mystic marriage to Christ, the crown, an allusion to her royal birth, a book inscribed with her offering of herself as a bride to Christ. None of these are present here, only the generic palm of the martyr and the executioner's sword, together with a Classical setting which insists that if it is Catherine, as Rubens says it is, it is Catherine of Alexandria and not the later Catherine of Siena. So much for iconography.