Reliquary Bust of Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2008

Workshop of Niclaus Gerhaert von Leiden, active 1460-73
Reliquary Bust of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Basswood with polychromy
Upper Rhenish, Alsatian (Strasbourg), about 1465
From the Benedictine Abbey Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Wissembourg, near Strasbourg

Accession #: 17.190.1734

This bust and its companion exhibited nearby reflect the naturalistic trend of works produced in Gerhaert's shop when he was working in the Upper Rhine. The closest comparisons occur with the stone fragments preserved from the portal of the Chancellery of Strasbourg of 1464.

Relics of Saint Catherine who can be identified by her attribute of a sword and a wheel, were once located in the chest cavity. Four reliquary busts set up in niches at the base of the altarpiece for the high altar are recorded: Saint Catherine, seen here, and Saint Barbara to the left of the doorway. The two other busts include Saint Margaret in the Art Institute of Chicago, and Saint Agnes, presently unlocated.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.