As LACMA prepares for the 2026 public opening of the new David Geffen Galleries, the future home of the museum’s permanent collection spanning a breadth of eras and cultures, we’re sharing 50 iconic artworks that will be on view in the building over the next 50 weeks in the series 50 Works 50 Weeks.
According to her legend, Saint Catherine of Alexandria was a fourth-century princess and fervent Christian who even tried to win the Roman emperor Maxentius to her cause. In this painting by Bernardo Strozzi (circa 1615), she is seated in a manner that presents her to the viewer from below, with Strozzi meticulously detailing her elongated oval head, theatrical upward gaze, and pale-pink and indigo garment set against a sharply contrasting dark backdrop. She is seated with a spiked wheel, the emblem of her martyrdom, not as a suffering saint but as a triumphant figure. Her precious crown alludes both to her noble origin and posthumous glorification, and the saint’s regal appearance is underlined by the beauty and sheer sensuality of the dress’s fabric. The subject’s ethereal expression helps to elevate the image above material reality, setting it instead in an abstract and spiritual realm.
A few years prior to painting this idealized, life-size representation of Saint Catherine, Strozzi lived as a cloistered Capuchin monk in Genoa, the largest Italian seaport on the Mediterranean coast, renowned for its trade in artworks and goods. Inspired by the great works of the late Renaissance that were accessible in the city’s churches, Strozzi developed his own original manner. In 1631, rather than reenter the order after leaving to support his widowed mother, he moved to Venice, where he brought his distinctive Baroque style and earned the nickname “Il Prete Genovese,” the Genoese Priest. Typically his paintings are imbued with profound emotion and executed with particular energy. Saint Catherine is one the artist’s earliest recorded compositions. Nothing is known of the circumstances of its execution, but the artist created several versions attesting to the popularity of the subject. This painting may be one of the earliest.
The painting’s more recent history, however, has been the subject of considerable attention. In 1944, at the end of World War II, it was looted from the renowned art historian and collector Charles Loeser at the Villa Gattaia during the Nazi occupation of Florence. Nothing was known about the whereabouts of the painting for over 70 years. It resurfaced when a pair of Italian dealers attempted to auction it in 2009, leading to its recognition as Nazi plunder. Philippa Calnan, the sole heir of the painting and Loeser’s granddaughter, spent five years fighting for its restitution. The Italian courts ultimately overturned previous rulings that had prevented its export from Italy. In a generous gesture, Calnan gifted the painting to LACMA in memory of her grandfather.