St. Catherine of Alexandria (detail; M 070) Ceramic Tree Decoration

The focal point of this detail is the bestowal by the infant Jesus (not visible here) of a gold wedding ring on St. Catherine of Alexandria (died c. 305). St. Catherine was a princess, a noted scholar, and a Christian virgin martyr. She is readily identifiable by the ornamentation of her rich garments. Like the other figures present, however, St. Catherine is fashionably but ahistorically dressed for the 15th- not the early 4th century. St. Catherine's red ermine-trimmed sideless surcoat is embroidered in silver thread with broken, spiked wheels (or Catherine wheels). Among the tortures to which she was subjected, St. Catherine was condemned to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but it shattered at her touch. She was later beheaded. + Below (and barely visible here): St. Mary Magdalene. Feast of St. Catherine of Alexandria: November 25; Feast of St. Mary Magdalene: July 22 + Image Credit (M 070): Detail of Virgo inter Virgines [in Latin; La Vierge parmi les vierges in French; The (Blessed) Virgin among Virgins in English], by The Master of the Legend of St. Lucy (fl. c. 1435-1506/1509), oil on oak panel, 67.3"x42.5" (171 cm x 108 cm), c. 1488, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, inv. 2576. From Wikimedia Commons {PD-Art|PD-Old-100}. The image file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights.