I would appreciate any further insights into the
legend of the martyrdom of Catherine of Alexandria (Nov 25).
Tradition says she was to be tortured by a wheel which,
when it was miraculously destroyed, left her the fate of
beheading. I’m thinking specifically of Pieter Brueghel’s
Landscape with the Martyrdom of St. Catherine of Alexandria
which depicts a large cloud of black smoke on the left side
of the canvas. http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg41/gg41-41601-lit.html
Anyone not knowing the story would assume the smoke was
somehow the means of her death, even though two wheels are also
depicted. As we know Brueghel is famous for embedding climactic
events in the background of his landscapes as with The Fall of Icarus,
suggesting, as Auden later writes, that ”even the dreadful martyrdom
must run its course. . . . “ My apologies if I missed earlier related posts.
Marjorie Schulenburg
