Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Peter Paul Rubens was one of the most talented and famous artists in northern Europe in the 17th century. Throughout his career, he relied on professional printmakers to help him publicize his images, but he probably made no more than three etchings, of which Saint Catherine of Alexandria in the Clouds is most often accepted as his work. This sheet depicts the saint atop the wheel of her martyrdom, just as Rubens painted her in the Jesuit church in Antwerp (1620/21). The artist may have turned to printmaking in the 1630s, when he collaborated with Christoffel Jegher to produce 24 woodcuts, and this late state may not have been printed until after his death.