The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum is one of the calmest, most serene, and beautiful galleries I have ever visited.

It's true that I was predisposed to like it having heard the (possibly apocryphal) story of how the collection comes to be in Madrid and not London. It is said that the Baron had initially wanted to bequeath his remarkable collection to the United Kingdom. As part of the negotiations a lunch was arranged with the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher.

True to form, Mrs Thatcher's imperious and forthright manner so irritated the Baron's wife that she retired from lunch earlyon account of her lap dog being unwell and needing her attention.

The collection came to Madrid ;-).

Whatever the veracity of that tale I would have loved this museum regardless. I had come with the singular purpose of seeing one picture.

My mission to see all seventy of the surviving works of Caravaggio had brought me to Madrid where there are three, all in different galleries.

'St Catherine of Alexandria' (1597/8) is significant in the oeuvre of Michelangelo di Merisi in that it is one of the earliest examples of his choosing the rich dark colours that he later contrasted with the lighter ones to such great effect in what we now call the 'chiarascuro'.

Seated by the wheel, on which she met her gruesome end, and adorned with other instruments of torture Catherine is a striking figure.

However, for me the star of the show is her dress. The rich dark folds in what appears to be endless, magnificent are so skillfully painted that standing before it I wanted to reach out and envelop myself within them*.

Magnificent.

• For the record - I didn't.