the rare phenomenon of a fifteenth-century nun-artist whose artworks are preserved in her personal breviary.
She meditated while she copied the scriptural text, adding about 1000 prayer rubrics, and drew initials with bust-portraits of saints, paying special attention to images of Saints Clare and Francis. Besides multiple images of Christ and the infant swaddled Christ Child, she depicted other saints, including Thomas Becket, Jerome, Paul, Anthony of Padua, Mary Magdalene, her name saint Catherine of Alexandria.
Her self-taught style incorporated motifs from needlework and devotional prints. Some saints' images, interwoven with text and rubrics, display an idiosyncratic, inventive iconography also found in German nuns' artworks (Nonnenarbeiten). The breviary and its images surely served a didactic function within the convent community.
Other panel paintings and manuscripts attributed to her include the Madonna and Child (nicknamed the Madonna del Pomo) in the Cappella della Santa, a possible portrait or self-portrait in the autograph copy of the Sette Armi Spirituali, a Redeemer, and another Madonna and Child in her chapel. A drawing of a Man of Sorrows or Resurrected Christ found in a miscellany of lauds [Ms. 35 no.4, Archivio Generale Arcivescovile, Bologna] has also been attributed to her.
Recently, scholars have rejected these artworks either based on style or scientific examination of materials, and called her reputation as a painter "more legendary than fact"... Caterina da Bologna however is significant as a woman artist who articulated an aesthetic philosophy. She explained that although it took precious time, the purpose of her religious art was "to increase devotion for herself and others".
~wikipedia~
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