St Catherine of Alexandria
Giclée print on canvas
model: Tara Byakko
Also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius.
The emperor condemned Catherine to death on the spiked breaking wheel, an instrument of torture. The wheel was miraculously destroyed, however, in answer to St. Catherine's prayer, and so Maxentius had to settle for beheading her.
In art She can usually be easily recognised as she is crowned, as befits her rank as a princess, and often holds a segment of her wheel or a sword as an attribute.