Signorelli’s animated Martyrdom presents a grisly act in a busy yet uncluttered scene that fits the eye nicely. Signorelli clearly makes the most of the innovations of his predecessors in the Renaissance to inject humanity into his characters and give the scene as a whole a sense of reality.

It almost goes without saying that St. Catherine didn’t get a happy ending. Like most saints prior to the reign of Constantine, her life ended violently. St. Catherine grew up a pagan princess, but the precocious girl began receiving visits from Christ and the Virgin in her teenage years. She vowed to remain a virgin, claiming that Mary had wed her to Jesus. She traveled from Alexandria to Rome and tried to persuade Emperor Maxentius from persecuting Christians. He tried to humiliate her, sending several of his best scholars to debate with her over Christianity. She won, and it wasn’t close. She won so badly that several of her opponents converted to Christianity. Maxentius killed these people and locked her in a prison cell, where she received regular visits from new converts, including the empress herself. The emperor sentenced her to die a painful death on the spiked wheel, but at her touch, the wheel disintegrated, as shown in the right half of the painting. Signorelli interprets this scene slightly differently—in his vision, angels intervened and shot the wheel to pieces. After that impressive display of divine intervention, the king had her beheaded—the left side of the painting. Her followers transported her body to a tomb in Sinai, where it remains today. She lives on in Christianity. Joan of Arc claimed that Catherine advised her, and I am sure Catherine would rejoice to learn that she is one of the 14 most helpful saints.

The bodies of other martyrs lie strewn throughout the composition as the cruel faces of the Roman heathens leer at Catherine, who awaits her end with a calm dignity. Maxentius may have ordered as many as 200 people executed on that day—anyone who had converted under the guidance of Catherine faced this end. Signorelii makes good use of perspective, although the painting seems confusing because it depicts two completely separate scenes with little to divide them. Signorelli’s illustration of the human form shows his interest in anatomy—humans look much more lifelike than just 50 years before.

This rather unusual work by Signorelli showcases his mastery of humanism and tells the story of the martyrdom of one of Christianity’s more interesting saints.