Title: Miraculous Communion

Artist: Domenico Beccafumi

The Miraculous Communion of Saint Catherine of Siena About 1513–15 Domenico Beccafumi (Domenico di Giacomo di Pace) Italian, Montaperti 1484–Siena 1551 Oil and gold leaf on panel An angel miraculously delivers a fragment of the host (the consecrated bread used in Christian Communion) into the mouth of Saint Catherine of Siena. Beccafumi expressed the momentousness of this central episode from Catherine's life through evocative details, including the incredulous gestures and expressions of the witnesses (center) and the puzzled priest (right). This panel and its companion piece displayed nearby originally formed parts of the same altarpiece, dismantled long ago.