DOMENICO PIOLA (Genoa, 1627 –1703) painter among the main exponents of the Genoese Baroque. "MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF SAINT CATHERINE" Oil painting on canvas cleaned and relined. Examined under Wood's lamp, it shows some restorations for which photos and documentation are provided below. Canvas dimensions cm 130x93. Painting of excellent pictorial quality with a unique perspective play. Saint Catherine occupies the center of the composition, in a penitent act, resting on a kneeler half-covered with fabrics, illustrated with refined and careful drapery, which make up a significant play of shadows and strong chiaroscuro. Above, the Child Jesus, surrounded by a circle of light, offers the ring to the Holy Martyr, placed lower down in an oblique position and participating in the divine light, determining a continuous transverse band of light that connects her to the Child; creating an image of great effect for the viewer. In the painting we see with what sweetness and skill the artist has created the connection between the two characters, using the hand of the Saint, whose elongated fingers are represented in the act of receiving the wedding ring. A circle of cherubs expands over a good part of the painting, partially creating a frame around the Madonna who supports and offers the Child towards the Saint; those at the top on the left, more in shadow, are glimpsed, putting us in a condition to imagine their appearance, those close to the Child are more illuminated, thus concretizing the continuation of the Divine light towards the Saint. In this work we find the scenographic elaboration of the diagonal dynamics, already present in the painter's early production and a recurring motif in many of his works, the Saint as the center of the perspective diagonal thus assumes a leading role in the scene. The painting under examination is vivified by flashes of light that enliven the composition and the representation in its modeling and is the result of a predetermined drawing, well studied, for a chiaroscuro obtained due to the contrast between the dark background of the scene and the light generated by the divine group. This lively movement, which radiates throughout the pictorial representation; obtained from the little angels, the voluminous drapery, the strong and well-defined points of light, which in contrast create a chiaroscuro of remarkable expressive force in the pictorial context. This representation, characterized in the dynamics and in the description of the characters with great mastery by the artist, is completed in a diagonal movement, which crosses the canvas. These are the typical characteristics present in the works of Domenico Piola and his Workshop.