''Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine'' is an unfinished c.1529 oil on panel painting of the

mystical marriage of Saint Catherine The mystical marriage of Saint Catherine (or "Mystic") covers two different subjects in Christian art arising from visions received by either Catherine of Alexandria or Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), in which these virgin saints went through a ...

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, B ...

. It dates to the painter's time in Bologna or a few years earlier during his stay in Rome. From 1638 to 1687 it was owned by don Gaspar Mendez de Haroy Guzman, the Spanish ambassador to Rome, before passing to Giovanni Battista Sommariva. It was acquired in 1823 by

Frédéric Reiset Marie Frédéric Eugène de Reiset (12 June 1815 – 27 February 1891) was a French art collector, art historian and curator. He served as curator of the department of prints and drawings at the Louvre and as director-general of France's Musées ...

and then in 1992 by its current owner the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

, as a gift from the

Société des amis du Louvre The Société des amis du Louvre ("Society of Friends of the Louvre") is a voluntary association created in 1897 whose objective is to buy objects with an artistic, archeological, or historical value for the Louvre museum. History The Society ...

. Three copies of it are known in the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

in Moscow, in the Campori collection in Modena and one in a private collection sold at Phillips in London on 19 April 1994.

Sources

* Mario Di Giampaolo ed Elisabetta Fadda, ''Parmigianino'', Keybook, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2002. * {{Authority control category:1529 paintings Paintings by Parmigianino Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists Paintings of children category:Unfinished paintings