The Virgin with the Infant Christ, seated upon Clouds above Saint Hippolytus and Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Artist: Moretto Da Brescia (Italian, 1498 - 1554)

Original Dimensions: 92 1/2" x 56 1/8"

Location: National Gallery of Art, London

About Artwork: (About 1540) "Saint Hippolytus gazes up at the Virgin and Child in the clouds and gestures to a distant group of buildings, probably Onzato, where this painting was originally displayed, or nearby Flero. Saints Catherine and Hippolytus were both martyred by having their limbs broken as they refused to convert to paganism, which would have deprived them of salvation and confined them to a spiritual prison. The fractured slab of masonry with the inscription was added later to emphasise the connection between the two saints. The inscription translates as: ‘They chose to be dismembered rather than be sundered by chains everlasting.’ The painting came from the church of S. Eusebio in Onzato, a hamlet of Flero, south of Brescia. The church, which was originally part of a small convent, was ceded to Conte Tomaso Caprioli, who may have commissioned this altarpiece shortly before his death in 1538." - (National Gallery of Art, London)