Beginning in the late 16th century, the fathers of the Catholic Church made an official appeal to artists to use their skills to produce art that would stir the emotions of the faithful. Religious images were understood to be powerful weapons in the campaign to counteract the success of the Protestant Reformation. This painting is a beautiful example of a Counter-Reformation image. Earlier images of St. Catherine always showed her as a lovely, vital young princess, often standing beside the spiked wheel on which she would be tortured. Here she is instead presented as lifeless, in the arms of a mournful, loving angel who is about to transport her to heaven. Two other angels descend with her martyr’s palm and crown.

The appeal to our emotions is heightened by the dramatic use of light and shadow and the way Baglione places the figures so intimately close to our space. She is literally being held up for us, too, to gaze upon with sorrow, to ponder the tragedy of her sacrifice for her faith.