Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1824)
Original title: Saint Catherine of Alexandria
kurzbeschreibung
This engraving, made by Auguste Gaspard Louis Boucher Desnoyers in 1824, presents Saint Catherine of Alexandria with her hands clasped, looking directly at the viewer against an idealized landscape. The print is executed in the medium of engraving.
Description
Catherine of Alexandria fills the foreground and faces the viewer; her hands are clasped, her gaze directed to the left. A cloak falls over a long-sleeved gown, its folds rendered in fine lines. Behind her, a landscape of trees, a lake, and mountains unfolds symmetrically around the figure. Light falls from above onto the saint, clearly separating her from the landscape space. Shades of gray dominate the entire sheet, as is characteristic of engraving.
Context
This engraving was made in France in 1824, during a period when printmaking was widely disseminated. Desnoyers was regarded as a skilled engraver and was valued for his precise reproductions of famous paintings. The sheet may have served as a devotional image or as part of a series of religious subjects. Catherine of Alexandria was among the most venerated saints in Christianity, which explains the choice of motif.
Impact
The saint meets the viewer calmly and collectedly, and the symmetrical layout reinforces this solemn, devotional impression. Clear contours and restrained linework give the sheet a classicist severity and elegance. The light falling from above emphasizes the figure's spiritual radiance and draws attention to her face.
Technique
For this engraving, the lines were incised into a copper plate and then transferred to paper with printing ink. Precisely guided lines and finely graded gray values attest to the engraver's high level of craftsmanship. The plate measures 40.3 × 29.9 cm, and the sheet measures 44.5 × 35.5 cm—common formats for a representative print of this era.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)