Saint Catherine with a Kneeling Male Donor

Why it matters

This panel was originally part of a much larger composition. Saint Catherine stands behind a donor, a cleric, who faces a missing scene representing either the Crucifixion or the standing Virgin, which would have formed the object of the donor’s devotion. In the lower right corner an inscription identifies the donor as rector de Melle, a clergyman in charge of the parish of the town of Melle in western France. The panel must have been commissioned for a church in this town with which the donor was affiliated. A scroll near the donor reads Miserere mei deus (God have mercy on me).