This article accompanies the fable
Voices and Saints


The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria

The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria (below), painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder around 1506, near the beginning of his career. Cranach later would come under the spell of Martin Luther, whom he painted in 1529 (at bottom). Luther gave Cranach this sage advice: to paint his women "ten-folds more rapacious and ravenous," with "the wife-coveting man and his lover totally unclothed, committing those unspeakable acts."