Born in Paris in 1590, Simon Vouet was one of the most significant European artists. His works are divided into two main periods: Italian (1612 – 1627) and French (1627 – 1649). He painted Saint Catherine in Italy shortly before he returned to France. The Italian period of his works was strongly influenced by Carravagio, where his paintings already showed lyric and harmony in composition; these were later even more remarkable in his French period of brilliant painting. The painting Saint Catherine, pictured on the stamp of this issue, is one of the great valuable works in the European art collection of the Slovak National Gallery. It came from Count Ján Pálffy’s collection. In 1907 the painting was thought to have been the work of an Italian painter from 17th century. However in 1977 an expert researcher Dr. K. Vaculík from the Slovak National Gallery, was able to show that in fact this master piece should have been attributed to Simon Vouet. This attribution was accepted by foreign literature. The artist died in Paris in 1649. On the FDC is detail of the painting. On the cancellation are the Saint’s attributes (broken wheel, sword, palm twig).