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The ''Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine'' (or ''Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara'') is an oil-on-oak painting by Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It measures 68.3 x 73.3 cm and was executed c. 1480. The panels depict the Virgin holding the Child on her lap, flanked by two virgin martyr saints, St Catherine of Alexandria and St Barbara, against a landscape. It is a devotional donor portrait, and combines then popular themes of Marian art with elements common to iconography of Mary and the Child, such as the Hortus conclusus, ''sacra conversazione'' and a ''Virgo inter Virgines'' – the latter of which always presents Mary with Sts Catherine and Barbara. The work is typical of Memling's serene and harmonious style. Maryan Ainsworth describes the composition as perfectly balanced and harmonious, the colors "bright and clear".〔 Memling combined techniques learned from his predecessors Rogier van der Weyden, to whom he was almost certainly apprenticed, and Jan van Eyck, synthesizing elements of the earlier artists' work. The composition is a copy of the central panel of Memling's ''St John Altarpiece'',〔Ainsworth (1998), 116〕 with some alterations. It is unknown when Memling painted it; 1480 seems a probable date according to tree ring analysis. The arbor arching over the Virgin's throne was added at a later date, probably in the 16th century.〔("Virgin and Child with Saints" ). Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved April 19, 2015.〕 ==Description== The painting depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by saints and angels; the donor kneels to the left of the holy figures. The Virgin is enthroned beneath a baldachin (canopy of honor) of sumptuous brocade, and holds the child on her lap. Her emblem, the iris, can be seen in the garden behind the throne. On either side of her are two angels dressed in liturgical garments with musical instruments; the one to the left plays a portable organ and the one on right plays a harp. To the left in front of Mary kneels St Catherine of Alexandria, a martyr virgin saint, opposite St Barbara the second virgin martyr saint, who sits to the right, reading a missal.〔 The donor stands behind St Catherine, holding rosary beads. Attached to his hip is either a barely visible small purse or a coat-of-arms.〔Ridderbos (2005), 136〕 St Catherine was highly venerated in the Middle Ages, second only in popularity to the Magdelen.〔Snyder (1987), 35〕 As befits her royal birth, Catherine wears a crown on her head, and is dressed in rich clothing with a white tabard, red velvet sleeves, and a lavishly patterned brocade skirt.〔 Emperor Maxentius tortured Catherine on an iron-spiked wheel and later, when she proclaimed herself married to Christ, he had her beheaded.〔 According to her legend the mystic marriage occurred in a dream from which she awoke with a ring on her finger. Her emblems are the wheel and sword, seen in the foreground, peeking out from beneath the voluminous folds of her ermine-lined skirt.〔 She extends her left hand to the Christ Child who places the ring on her finger, symbolizing their spiritual, or mystical, betrothal.〔 James Snyder writes that, as was Memling's habit, "the drama of the moment is in no way reflected by the expressions on the faces of the participants."〔 St Barbara was also a mystical bride of Christ.〔 Her emblem is the tower looming behind her, in which her father had her imprisoned and where she was secretly baptized. It is in the shape of a monstrance, meant to hold the sacramental bread; the three windows symbolize the Trinity.〔Ridderbos (2005), 136〕 In 1910 James Weale identified Catherine was an early portrait of Mary of Burgundy and Barbara as the earliest likeness of Margaret of York,〔Weale (1910), 177〕 a theory that medieval art historian Thomas Kren believes quite plausible. Both women belonged to the Guild of St Barbara at Ghent, Margaret of York, who was an avid bibliophile, commissioned a number of illuminated manuscripts, one of which was a ''Life of St Catherine'', and recent a recent exhumation gives physical examination of Mary of Burgundy's skull.〔Kren (1992), 43〕 By this period the female figures' features show Memling's development, who according to Ainsworth "has settled on a certain successful female types" – with a graceful oval face, wide eyes and narrow chins, whose expressions "tend to reflect a state of gentle, beatific acceptance."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (Memling)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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