Ordeal of the Wheels

Juan de la Abadía the elder, artist

active 1470–1500

Ordeal of the Wheels, before 1491

Where object was made: Kingdom of Aragon (present-day Spain)

Material/technique: panel; gold leaf; oil

Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 80 x 49.5 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 31 1/2 x 19 1/2 in

Credit line: Museum purchase

Accession number: 1960.0069

Not on display

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Label texts

This panel depicts the torture of St. Catherine of Alexandria, an event referred to as the “ordeal of the wheels.” It is from this story that Catherine acquired her primary identifying mark, or attribute, of the broken wheel. Catherine was a legendary fourth-century Christian saint who was miraculously saved from this ghastly torment by angels, although she was later martyred by the Romans. The legend of Catherine may be understood within the context of the organized persecutions of early Christians, which occurred intermittently in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan in 313 CE made Christianity an officially tolerated religion. This painting was originally part of a much larger altarpiece dedicated to Catherine, which featured many episodes in her life.

Exhibition Label:
"Corpus," Apr-2012, Kris Ercums
This panel depicts the torture of St. Catherine
of Alexandria, an event referred to as the “ordeal of the wheels.” It is from this story that Catherine acquired her primary identifying mark, or attribute, of the broken wheel. Catherine was a legendary fourth-century Christian saint who was miraculously saved from this ghastly torment by angels, although she was later martyred by the Romans. The legend of Catherine may be understood within the context of the organized persecutions of early Christians, which occurred intermittently in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan in 313 CE made Christianity an officially tolerated religion. This painting was originally part of a much larger altarpiece dedicated to Catherine, which featured many episodes in her life.

Label Sep-2009:
This panel depicts the torture of St. Catherine of Alexandria, an event referred to as the “ordeal of the wheels.” It is from this story that Catherine acquired her primary identifying mark, or attribute, of the broken wheel. Catherine was a legendary fourth-century Christian saint who was miraculously saved from this ghastly torment by angels, although she was later martyred by the Romans. The legend of St. Catherine may be understood within the context of the organized persecutions of early Christians, which occurred intermittently in the Roman Empire until the Edict of Milan in 313 CE made Christianity an officially tolerated religion.
This painting was originally part of a much larger altarpiece dedicated to St. Catherine, which featured many episodes in her life. The altarpiece was housed in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Huesca, Spain, until the mid-twentieth century, when the panels were separated and dispersed in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

Archive Label:
This panel is part of a larger retablo, or altarpiece, devoted to the life of St. Catherine of Alexandria, which, until it was broken up around the time of the Spanish Civil War, was in the Church of the Magdalene in Huesca. The painting can be dated from the 1491 commission of another altarpiece by Juan that specified that it was to be equivalent to the St. Catherine retablo “recently completed by the artist.”
The painting depicts the legend of St. Catherine’s miraculous deliverance from martyrdom. The emperor Maxentius wanted to marry her, but Catherine refused, because in a vision she had entered into a mystic marriage with Christ. The angered emperor ordered that she be torn apart by wheels studded with iron spikes, but an angel destroyed the wheels before Catherine was harmed. The emotional intensity and fascination with cruel realism are characteristic of Spanish painting of the period, traits that were carried to extremes in the region of Aragon. Juan was one of the more significant practitioners of this style; the curiously drawn rocks are an earmark of his manner of painting.