This splendid altarpiece, depicting Saint Catherine of Alexandria venerated by the donors and flanked by scenes from her life, originally came from the Bischeri Chapel in the Cathedral. It was commissioned in 1370 by Noferi di Giovanni di Bartolomeo de’ Bischeri from the prominent Tuscan painter Giovanni del Biondo.

According to legend, Saint Catherine of Alexandria was a learned young Christian princess who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, between the 3rd and 4th centuries. She was martyred by beheading at the age of eighteen for refusing to worship pagan gods and to marry the emperor. Before her execution, she had been sentenced to death by the spiked breaking wheel, which, however, miraculously shattered at her touch — an episode alluded to by the iconographic attribute beside her in the painting. The artist portrays her seated on a throne, crowned and richly dressed in gold-embroidered silk, holding a book in one hand. At her feet kneel the patron Noferi and his two sons, Bartolomeo and Giovanni, shown devoutly in prayer with hands clasped. The Bischeri family, whose arms appear in the lower part of the painting, were a prominent wealthy Florentine family with considerable political power. Noferi’s will, dated 1407, states that in around this year the painting was hung in their family chapel in the Cathedral, opposite the Canons Door. On this occasion scenes from the life of the saint were added to either side of the original panel, and it was crowned with representations of the Apostles Bartholomew and John, patron saints of Noferi’s two sons. An inscription below bears the names of the people portrayed, as if to present them to the saint and place them under her protection: “HERE IS N(OFERI) BISCHERI AND MESSERE B(ARTOLOMEO) AND G(IOVANNI) HIS SONS”.