Deesis with Saint Paul and Saint Catherine

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Deesis with Saint Paul and Saint Catherine is an oil on panel painting by Giulio Romano, made around 1520. It is now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.

The scene shows a deesis arrangement: in the lower part are Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, while above them are the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.

Romano here shows his early Raphael-inspired, classicising style, not yet the Mannerism he would later develop at Mantua’s Palazzo Te. Saint Catherine’s figure even echoes Raphael’s Disputation of the Holy Sacrament in the Vatican.

In the past, some attributed the work to Raphael, but later studies, supported by Romano’s preparatory drawings in the Louvre, showed it is by Giulio Romano.

The painting has hung on the high altar of Parma’s monastery church of San Paolo since at least the mid-1600s, perhaps earlier; how it came to Parma is unknown. It may have been commissioned around 1520, possibly by abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, who also commissioned Correggio for her private Camera della Badessa. The saints chosen reflect the church’s dedication to Saint Paul and the monks’ devotion to Saint Catherine.