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Livio Agresti

Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers

1562/63
Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk, on cream laid paper, pieced
50.5 × 39.5 cm (19.9 × 15.6 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

This highly finished sheet is a compositional proposal, or modello , for the high altar of Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome. Commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cesi for the left wall of the sanctuary, the painting was begun by Agresti in 1562/63 but finished by Federico Zuccaro in 1571/72. The subject is a conflation of two scenes taken from the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine. Above, Catherine asserts the tenets of Christianity before the Emperor Maxentius and 50 pagan orators assembled to argue against her; below, she is attended by an angel after the orators were converted and Maxentius had her imprisoned as punishment.

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