Overview

The Oratory of Santa Caterina delle ruote, built on the Rimezzano farm on the slopes of the Baroncelli hill, was constructed by Jacopo and Giovanni, sons of Alberto degli Alberti, owners of many lands in the Piviere dell'Antella, starting in 1354.
It is distinguished by its extreme simplicity: the outer masonry has regular alberese filaretto masonry, the portal with its pointed archway has a lunette that was once frescoed, a sloping roof and an eye with a stone frame. A small bell gable rises at the rear. The interior, a rectangular hall, is divided into two bays with cross vaults and marked stone ribs. The first is undecorated, while the second and the scarsella are adorned with a majestic fresco decoration that also covers the vaulted parts with stories of St Catherine of Alexandria, venerated in the Middle Ages for her wisdom and protector of judges and notaries.
There were two painters who alternated in the work, the Maestro di Barberino, an anonymous artist from the Orcagna area, and Pietro Nelli, a disciple of Bernardo Daddi, with his softer strokes. The Master of Barberino painted the Annunciation on the back wall, the Saint Benedict and the Deacon Saint, the sails and sub-arch of the chapel and three scenes in the Scarsella. After thirty years of interruption, the decoration was completed at the behest of Benedetto di Nerozzo degli Alberti. Spinello Aretino, originally from Arezzo and highly regarded at the end of the 14th century, was entrusted with the task of completing the triumphal arch and restoring the narrative of the saint's life, which he illustrated with eight episodes in the lunettes and panels below the walls. In the vault sails are the Four Evangelists with their symbols, and in the archway the Apostles with the Agnus Dei and, along the plinth, busts of the Prophets.

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