Vincenzo Catena

Vincenzo Catena was a Venetian painter of calm, carefully finished religious pictures and portraits. His early work is close to Giovanni Bellini, with clear light and still figures, and later he absorbed some of the softer atmosphere of Giorgione.

He was born around 1480 and worked in Venice throughout his career. Unusually for a painter, he was a man of some wealth, and his wills show he had friends among Venetian humanists. Only about a dozen signed works survive. His Martyrdom of Saint Christina of 1520, in the church of Santa Maria Mater Domini in Venice, is his only securely dated painting. He also painted portraits, including one of the poet Giangiorgio Trissino. He died in Venice in 1531.

In Judith, look at the calm, almost statue-like pose, typical of his quiet manner.