MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - PA136.jpg


Category	Painting
Origin: artist/workshop	Filippino Lippi (1457-1504)
Date	15C/4
Reference No
Size	208x197
Provenance	Family Chapel of St Bernard at Benedictine Monastery of La Campora, Marignolle
Present Location	Florence, Badia Fiorentina
Bibliography	Florence 1990, 58 & 138; Scharf 1935, 110; Berenson 1963, 109; Kaftal 1952, 178 &180
	Paffrath 1990, 46; Clark 1981-2, 175-87; Dal Pra 1990, 362; van Marle 1923-38, 12: 300-3; Schmitt 1990, 159; Aurenhammer 1959-67, 338
Illustration From	Florence 1990, 139 & ill 32 (detail)
Other illustrations	Paffrath 1990, 46; Scharf 1935, ill 47-9; Berenson 1963, ill 1144; Kaftal 1952, ill 190
	Clark 1981-2, ill 1; Dal Pra 1990, ill 10; van Marle 1923-38, 12:facing 302; Fischer 1990, ill 63; Elm 1994, ill 6; Eberbach 2003, 30
Country	Italy

Description:
Perhaps the most famous of all paintings of Bernard, painted by Filippino Lippi c 1486. A nimbed Bernard in a white cowl sits on rocks at a rustic desk made out of a board placed on a rough tree trunk. He is in the process of writing with a pen in his right hand when he sees the Virgin in a red dress and blue cape standing before him, her right hand placed on his text. She is accompanied by four angels. Behind Bernard is a rocky landscape with trees, a building on the right, and three groups of monks - two monks in tunics and scapulars in conversation, two monks in cowls with the hoods over their heads who are aware of the vision, and, in the distance, a larger group in cowls. In a cave behind Bernard a small devil and an owl may be seen, and in the lower righthand corner the kneeling half-figure of the donor, Piero di Francesco del Pugliese. On the rocks between the two figures are a number of books, one of them open and with the text 'Missus est angelus Gabriel a Deo...' (SBOp 7:69) from Bernard's Sermon on the Annunciation' (Luke 1:26).

Description:

Perhaps the most famous of all paintings of Bernard, painted by Filippino Lippi c 1486. A nimbed Bernard in a white cowl sits on rocks at a rustic desk made out of a board placed on a rough tree trunk. He is in the process of writing with a pen in his right hand when he sees the Virgin in a red dress and blue cape standing before him, her right hand placed on his text. She is accompanied by four angels. Behind Bernard is a rocky landscape with trees, a building on the right, and three groups of monks - two monks in tunics and scapulars in conversation, two monks in cowls with the hoods over their heads who are aware of the vision, and, in the distance, a larger group in cowls. In a cave behind Bernard a small devil and an owl may be seen, and in the lower righthand corner the kneeling half-figure of the donor, Piero di Francesco del Pugliese. On the rocks between the two figures are a number of books, one of them open and with the text 'Missus est angelus Gabriel a Deo...' (SBOp 7:69) from Bernard's Sermon on the Annunciation' (Luke 1:26).