The Standing Madonna and St. Catherine from the Kunsthistorisches: A Wedding Gift Symbolic of the Ideal Bride

Authors

Jennifer Champoux, Brigham Young University
Dr. Martha Peacock, Brigham Young University

Keywords

Madonna, St. Catherine, Kunsthistorisches, wedding gift, ideal bride

College

Fine Arts and Communications

Department

Art

Abstract

Two small panels by Rogier van der Weyden, The Virgin and Child Standing in a Niche and St. Catherine in a Landscape, both from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, create an interesting puzzle in terms of authorship, iconography, and purpose. Although largely considered to be matching panels of a diptych by Van der Weyden, the works are not conclusively his and, indeed, they exhibit aspects characteristic of his teachers and contemporaries. Moreover, the two panels are no longer attached to each other (if they ever were) which further complicates the issues of authorship and purpose. St. Catherine typically shows up in groups of virgin saints around the Virgin Mary, but the pairing of a panel of the Madonna and Child with a panel of St. Catherine alone is unusual, if not unprecedented. It is also unusual for one side of the diptych to be set in an architectural niche, as the Virgin and Child are, and the other side to be set in an open landscape, as St. Catherine is.

Recommended Citation

Champoux, Jennifer and Peacock, Dr. Martha (2013) "The Standing Madonna and St. Catherine from the Kunsthistorisches: A Wedding Gift Symbolic of the Ideal Bride," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 2071.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/2071