Lorenzo Veneziano was the leading Venetian painter of the second half of the fourteenth century. He is traditionally thought to have trained in the workshop of his elder brother Paolo Veneziano, whose work was firmly rooted in the Byzantine tradition, but Lorenzo’s style is from the first more expressive and shows a broader awareness of artistic activity outside of Venice. His earliest surviving signed work is the Annunciation with Saints and Prophets of 1357 (Venice, Accademia), known as the Lion Polyptych. The full-length saints share the elongated proportions of Paolo’s figures but differ in the urbanity of expression in the faces, and the draperies already show a version of Gothic style typical of Lorenzo. A particular sweetness and intimacy of expression are associated with more fluent draughtsmanship and more refined and continuous modelling than was characteristic of earlier Venetian painting. Draperies are sometimes sharply cut and angular, sometimes powerfully rhythmic or more playful. Colors are bright and often juxtaposed in sharp contrasts.
These characteristics may be observed in almost miniaturist scale in the present work. At the right Catherine stands in a comfortable pose, turned slightly to her left, her iconic wheel resting by her side. She wears a crown and her drapery is lined with ermine, as befits her royal stature and the martyr’s palm she holds alludes to her death. Mary Magdalene faces forward, holding a scroll in her right hand and an unguent jar in her left, her long golden hair framing a pensive, expressive face that even on the small scale, engages the viewer. This panel was likely part of a small domestic altarpiece, one of a series depicting other saints.
