Veneration of Saint Catherine of Sinai was quite widespread in the West. This retable adorned with the portrait of Saint Catherine was painted in the West, and according to a Catalan inscription, it was commissioned in Barcelona in 1387 by the Catalan Consul in Damascus Bernardo Maresa. The coat of arms on the lower left corner belongs to the kings of Catalonia. The Saint is depicted according to Western iconography, exemplified by the martyr’s palm leaf and the spiked breaking wheel, elements adopted by Cretan painters in the sixteenth century. Saint Catherine’s depiction also follows the Western Gothic style that was prevalent in Europe around 1400.
