Saint Bernardino of Siena and Art: Preaching and Baptism in Tuscany
- 1 January 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Project MUSE in The Catholic Historical Review
- Vol. 107 (2), 165-190
- https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.2021.0010
Abstract
This paper deals with the views of the Franciscan preacher Saint Bernardino of Siena (1380–1444) on baptism and civic peace and the associations he created between art and baptism and preaching. The widespread building and decoration of baptisteries in Italy points to the civic importance of that ritual in Italian cities. There was a close connection between baptism and the sense of civitas: the sacrament of Christian initiation also served to introduce an individual into the Christian society of the city. Bernardino’s emphasis on the relationship between baptism and civic peace followed a long-standing tradition in mendicant preaching. The present study has two major sections: it introduces Bernardino’s views on the arts and then suggests correlations between his ideas on baptism and the artistic program of the fifteenth-century baptismal font in the Siena baptistery created by Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Quercia, Donatello, and others. The central issues concern the way Bernardino referred to works of art as a way of making his sermons more approachable and graphic for his illiterate listeners and how his sermons may have influenced the decorative program for the baptismal font in the Sienese baptistery.Keywords
This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Language of Dives and Lazarus: Preaching Generosity and Almsgiving in Renaissance FlorenceI Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, 2020
- Medieval Sermon Studies since The Sermon: A Deepening and Broadening FieldMedieval Sermon Studies, 2014
- Renaissance Florence: A Social HistoryThe Sixteenth Century Journal, 2007
- Images and Identity in Fifteenth-Century FlorencePublished by Yale University Press ,2007
- Medieval Monastic PreachingPublished by Brill ,1998
- Beyond the Written Word: Preaching and Theology in the Florence of Archbishop Antoninus, 1427-1459.The Sixteenth Century Journal, 1997
- Entre dévotion et hérésie: La tablette de saint Bernardin ou le secret d'un prédicateurRes: Anthropology and aesthetics, 1995
- Baptism and Change in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200-c. 1150.The American Historical Review, 1995
- Jacopo della Quercia, SculptorThe Art Bulletin, 1975
- Political Ideas in Sienese Art: The Frescoes by Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Taddeo di Bartolo in the Palazzo PubblicoJournal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1958