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Lot Essay
This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by the artist and dated 2 Dec 2003.
If Viola's depictions of emotional states for which the viewer has no external object or event to understand them by are one striking feature of many of his works, another, which has come to the forefront, is his reference to medieval and classical depictions of emotion. Most immediately, his subdued Catherine's Room 2001, has many scene by scene parallels with Andrea di Bartolo's 1393 St. Catherine of Siena Praying. The present work, Catherine's Vow is an extension of this, the intimacy of the single screen calling to mind the glass-eyed and ghostly figures in the work of El Greco.
If Viola's depictions of emotional states for which the viewer has no external object or event to understand them by are one striking feature of many of his works, another, which has come to the forefront, is his reference to medieval and classical depictions of emotion. Most immediately, his subdued Catherine's Room 2001, has many scene by scene parallels with Andrea di Bartolo's 1393 St. Catherine of Siena Praying. The present work, Catherine's Vow is an extension of this, the intimacy of the single screen calling to mind the glass-eyed and ghostly figures in the work of El Greco.