A group of arrestingly odd characters have turned up lately in the Met Museum’s Fifth Avenue medieval galleries; three dapper wise men, a mysteriously cloaked Mary and a half-dressed saint associated with the plague stop foot traffic with their large size and idiosyncratic details. A wall text points out that in Europe’s bustling cities c. 1500, sculptors enlivened familiar holy figures with details inspired by contemporary life. Here, a limestone rendering of St Catherine of Alexandria from Lorraine, France ca 1475-1525 reads a book as she dominates a figure representing the ruler she refused to marry, reflecting, “the promise that virtuous rulers will triumph over corrupt tyrants.” (On view at the Met’s Fifth Ave location in gallery 305).
