A young woman sleeps with her cheek resting on the back of one hand next to a woman holding a nude baby and two winged angels in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin and they nearly fill the composition. The sleeping woman, Saint Catherine, rests her elbow on a stone table covered by a golden yellow cloth, which also wraps around her shoulders. Her knees are angled to our right and her face tips onto her hand to our left. Her curly, light brown hair is pulled back. She has delicately arching eyebrows, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her pale, olive-green, floor-length dress is tied at the waist with a mauve-purple sash. She wears a gold ring with a gray stone on the third finger of her left hand, which rests in her lap. To our right, the second woman, Mary, leans over Saint Catherine. Mary’s head is angled to our left, toward the sleeping saint, and she looks to our right, down past the baby. Mary’s complexion is has a faint gray cast, and her brown hair is covered by a white cloth, which is surrounded by a halo of light. A dark garment covers her shoulders over a scarlet-red dress. The baby sits on Mary’s lap with his body facing our left, toward Saint Catherine. He leans our way and looks at us with dark eyes. Light catches his brown curls and he has chubby cheeks, arms, and legs. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, a puff of gray cloud near the lower right corner seems to support Mary’s feet. A curving, charoal-gray spike in the lower left corner of the painting is partially covered by the yellow drapery. Behind Saint Catherine and over her head, next to Mary, are two winged angels with dark blond, curly hair. The angel closer to us rests one hand on the pine-green pillow behind Saint Catherine’s head and turns to look past Mary in profile, lips parted. The angel behind looks down with hands together in prayer. Light falls across the scene from our right. The upper right corner behind Mary is filled with brick-red clouds that, upon closer examination, are filled with faces looking onto the scene.

The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Lodovico Carracci

A young woman sleeps with her cheek resting on the back of one hand next to a woman holding a nude baby and two winged angels in this vertical painting. All the people have pale skin and they nearly fill the composition. The sleeping woman, Saint Catherine, rests her elbow on a stone table covered by a golden yellow cloth, which also wraps around her shoulders. Her knees are angled to our right and her face tips onto her hand to our left. Her curly, light brown hair is pulled back. She has delicately arching eyebrows, a straight nose, and her pink lips are closed. Her pale, olive-green, floor-length dress is tied at the waist with a mauve-purple sash. She wears a gold ring with a gray stone on the third finger of her left hand, which rests in her lap. To our right, the second woman, Mary, leans over Saint Catherine. Mary’s head is angled to our left, toward the sleeping saint, and she looks to our right, down past the baby. Mary’s complexion is has a faint gray cast, and her brown hair is covered by a white cloth, which is surrounded by a halo of light. A dark garment covers her shoulders over a scarlet-red dress. The baby sits on Mary’s lap with his body facing our left, toward Saint Catherine. He leans our way and looks at us with dark eyes. Light catches his brown curls and he has chubby cheeks, arms, and legs. Along the bottom edge of the canvas, a puff of gray cloud near the lower right corner seems to support Mary’s feet. A curving, charoal-gray spike in the lower left corner of the painting is partially covered by the yellow drapery. Behind Saint Catherine and over her head, next to Mary, are two winged angels with dark blond, curly hair. The angel closer to us rests one hand on the pine-green pillow behind Saint Catherine’s head and turns to look past Mary in profile, lips parted. The angel behind looks down with hands together in prayer. Light falls across the scene from our right. The upper right corner behind Mary is filled with brick-red clouds that, upon closer examination, are filled with faces looking onto the scene.

Colors in this work

Details
Artist
Lodovico Carracci
Date
c. 1593
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 138.8 x 110.5 cm (54 5/8 x 43 1/2 in.) framed: 181 x 149.9 x 11.4 cm (71 1/4 x 59 x 4 1/2 in.)
Department
CIS-B
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Palette

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Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

9 tags

Subject Matter

  • Madonna and Child Both · 99%

    Mary visibly supports a nude infant, and the museum description identifies the woman and child as Mary and the infant Jesus.

  • Saints Both · 99%

    The foreground sleeper is identified by the title and museum description as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

  • Dreams / Altered States of Consciousness Metadata · 98%

    The title explicitly identifies the subject as a dream; the sleeping figure and apparition-like sacred grouping reinforce that subject visually.

Visual Qualities

  • Dark Colors Visual · 95%

    The composition is dominated by deep black, brick-red, ocher-gold, olive-green, and other dark, saturated tones.

  • Dense Composition Visual · 95%

    Overlapping figures, sweeping draperies, and the limited atmospheric background produce a tightly packed composition.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 100%

    The National Gallery of Art identifies the medium as oil on canvas.

  • Chiaroscuro Visual · 90%

    Bright illumination falls across faces, hands, and the child’s body against extensive dark garments and a shadowed background, producing a pronounced light-dark contrast.

Time Periods

  • 16th Century Art Metadata · 100%

    The work is dated c. 1593, placing it in the sixteenth century.

Cultural and Religious Styles

  • Christian Art and Architecture Both · 99%

    The title names Saint Catherine, and the image depicts a sleeping saint in the presence of Mary, Christ, and angels within a devotional scene.

Source & rights

Lodovico Carracci. The Dream of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

High-resolution sources

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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