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This painting belongs to a narrative cycle depicting scenes from the life of Catherine of Siena, a fourteenth-century Dominican saint, who was a minister to the poor as well as a mystic. The panels, based on a biography of Saint Catherine written in 1385 by her confessor Raymond of Capua, represent the first complete pictorial cycle of her life. This series may have been produced following St Catherine's canonization in 1461 and added as a predella (base) to a preexisting altarpiece.
Among the most notable features of this panel is the way space is manipulated to enhance the mystic character of the subject.
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