UNKNOWN MASTER, Italian
(active 1420s in Apulia)

Cycle of the Apocalypse

1420s
Fresco
Santa Caterina, Galatina (Apulia)

The church of Santa Caterina in Galatina, whose nave has a self-contained fresco decor from the early fifteenth century (140 picture compartments altogether) received lavish gifts, beginning in 1385, from the count of Soleto, Raimondo del Balzo Orsini (c. 1350-1406). He was buried in Santa Caterina, and the painting of the church is related to his tomb, which originally stood in the choir.

The paintings, which are fully uniform in style and technique, are now thought to have been produced by a workshop influenced by a southern Italian branch of the early fifteenth-century Umbrian school. The manner in which they were painted and certain of their compositional motifs are most closely paralleled in the work of Ottaviano Nelli of Gubbio.

The nave paintings at Santa Caterina extend across four bays and follow a program that can be traced back to a text of St Bonaventura. The largest group of paintings is the one presenting the Apocalypse according to the revelation of St John. It extends across three walls in the first bay of the nave and includes some fifty separate scenes.

The picture shows a view of the choir through the three-aisled nave and entry wall with scenes from the Apocalypse.