Saint Catherine of Siena as Spiritual Mother of the Second and Third Orders of Saint Dominic

Cosimo Rosselli’s Saint Catherine of Siena as Spiritual Mother of the Second and Third Orders of Saint Dominic shows the saint seated on a throne, dressed in white and black with a veil, holding a manuscript while surrounded by kneeling Dominican nuns and clerics. The composition is frontal and symmetrical, with an arched architectural backdrop and a shallow spatial plane created by the tiled floor, emphasizing her authoritative, mediating role. The color palette relies on stark black-and-white habits, gilded halos, and touches of red and blue in the attendants, conveying a restrained, devotional late medieval-early Renaissance style.