Inspired by St. Catherine – Anna Heindl’s jewelry objects at the KHM

It is just a single display case in the first room of the Wunderkammer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM). But the contents go far beyond that. Some of the 30 or so pieces of jewelry that Anna Heindl is showing here were inspired by a painting just behind the display case: the late Gothic panel painting “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine” by the Master of Heiligenkreuz.

The painter is unknown, but his notational name refers to the place of origin of the painting from the Cistercian monastery Stift Heiligenkreuz. It was painted around 1400 as a diptych, one part shows a scene of the Annunciation, the other the Marriage. St. Catherine is one of the best-known and most popular martyrs, although there is no evidence of her historical existence. Her figure is probably based on Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who lived from around 355 to 415 and was murdered by Christians.

According to legend, Catherine lived in the same period. Instead of professing paganism, as a consecrated virgin in Alexandria she converted 50 wise men to Christianity in a duel. She was to be tortured with a wheel, but according to legend, an angel destroyed the wheel. In the end, she was beheaded with a sword and milk instead of blood was said to have flowed from her wounds.

The cult of St. Catherine has been documented in the West since the 8th century. She is usually depicted in the elegant dress of a king’s daughter with a crown, cross, palm, book, sword and the attribute of the wheel. Her day of remembrance is November 25th, which marks the end of the grazing year in the rural calendar. In the past, all wheels had to rest on this day: spinning wheels, mill wheels, wagon wheels and bicycles. Until the Second World War, the traditional Kathreintanz was the last dance of the year.

Many artists depicted the martyr; Caravaggio, for example, painted her in 1598 in a magnificent blue dress, leaning against a wheel. Heindl also studied the legend intensively and was perhaps further encouraged by Catherine’s “undefaced hand”, which is kept in St. Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, richly adorned with magnificent bracelets and rings. In the diptych in the KHM, the spider-like, overlong fingers of the female figure holding a wheel with thumb and forefinger quickly catch the eye. It is the saint’s attribute, a reference to her torture. Heindl sees the wheel as Catherine’s proud stand for her religious convictions.

“This picture was made for me 600 years ago,” she explains in an interview. You can see from the sleeve “what a fashion freak she was”: thanks to the extremely wide neckline, you can see that the woman was wearing a tight-fitting dress underneath. In her “Katharina” necklace in red gold with rock crystals arranged in a semicircle, she takes up the shape of the wheel. The “Opening” necklace with green tourmalines is based on the opening of the sleeve. She calls a ring with two separate stones “Opening Rock” and another necklace “Angel”. Heindl speaks of her pieces of jewelry as ‘sculptures for the body’ – what a beautiful way to put a contemporary spin on the memory of a martyr!

Anna Heindl. The Marriage. A special Kunstkammer presentation (November 14, 2024 to February 16, 2025)