Saint Catherine disputing before Maxentius with the doctors, sketch for the main altarpiece of the Roman Catholic church in Egerbakta Johann Lucas Kracker

Johann Lucas Kracker entered the service of the Bishop of Eger, Károly Eszterházy, in 1764. In 1768 he bought a house in Eger and settled in Hungary with his family. The construction of the church in Egerbakta was commissioned by Károly Eszterházy, and its main altarpiece – an outstanding work among Kracker’s late altar paintings – was also implemented according to the bishop’s programme. It depicts the theme of a Christian princess who lived in the fourth century and defended her faith in a dispute with Emperor Maxentius and fifty doctors of his empire. The composition of the altarpiece was modelled on Michelangelo Unterberger’s painting in Vienna, titled The Twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. The sketch, dominated by golden yellow tones and rugged, restless brushwork, presumably preserves one of the painter’s first thoughts compared to the more elaborate large altarpiece, which includes the subject of the dispute: a pagan idol and opposite, the cross rising.