Saint Catherine faces the spectator and holds a martyr’s palm in her right hand and a book in her left. Behind her left shoulder is part of the wheel upon which she was condemned to die but which miraculously broke. She wears a rose-pink dress, the blue lining buttoned down to form a collar, with a white chemise and a grey sash with yellow buttons, the larger central one with ‘IHS’. On her loose brown hair is a diadem.

There at least six versions of this painting in existence, including another autograph version in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. The Royal Collection and Copenhagen paintings both share a technical peculiarity in the lining of the dress, which is textured by stippling with the wrong end of the brush. This shared idiosyncrasy suggests that they have the best claims to be by Luini himself. The type is certainly Luini’s invention, as can be demonstrated by comparison with his mature works such as the Madonna with Saints Catherine and Barbara (Budapest) or the Magdalene (Kress Collection, Washington). A date in the 1520s is suggested by the affinity with the Madonna and the Saints, signed and dated 1521 (Brera, Milan) and the Saint Catherine fresco of 1527-32 (Santa Maria dei Miracoli, Saronno).

The painting appears in Pyne's illustrated Royal Residences of 1819, hanging in the King's Closet at Windsor Castle (RCIN 922104).