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This painting represents one of the most popular religious subjects of the 14th century, the mystic marriage of Saint Catherine. Catherine was a princess of Alexandria, Egypt in the 3rd century A.D. Christ appeared to her in a vision and married her in a wedding of their spirits. Christ's mother Mary stands at the center of this painting and brings together the hands of St. Catherine and Christ. Christ makes a motion to place a ring on Catherine's finger. Legend has it that when Catherine awoke from her vision, she still wore the ring that she received in her mystic marriage. This painting is unusual in that Christ is shown as a man. Most paintings of the mystic marriage of Catherine represent Christ as a baby.

During Catherine's lifetime, a cruel man named Maximin II ruled Alexandria, Egypt.. Taken by Catherine's beauty and intelligence, Maximin demanded her hand in marriage. When she refused (after all, she was already married to Christ!), he ordered her torn to death between two spiked wheels. As soon as Catherine was placed on the wheels, angels appeared and destroyed the wheels with heavenly flames. Furious, Maximin ordered Catherine beheaded and this time he was successful. The spiked wheel became a symbol for Catherine in works of art. In this painting, it appears next to her in the lower right corner.

The little figure kneeling at the bottom of the painting is most likely the person who commissioned the painting, probably for her church. Donors were traditionally pictured in hieratic scale, much smaller (and so less important) than the holy figures who are the real subjects of these paintings.

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