A person wearing a black hood and cloak over a white long-sleeved garment stands in a wooden box, a pulpit, and speaks to a crowd gathered below in this vertical painting. The people all have pale skin tinged with green and pink cheeks. The preacher stands along the right side of the painting, his mouth open and both hands held up. He faces our left almost in profile, and his forehead, eyes, and mouth are deeply lined. Seventeen men and women sit or stand across the front of the crowd or at the far side of it. They wear garments in rose pink, fog gray, sapphire blue, vivid red, or black. Five of them sit along a wooden rail or bench closest to us with their backs facing out. Between this and the standing people on the far side of the crowd are dozens of heads, mostly covered with white cloths though a few have blond hair. Buildings in gray, pale pink, or white stone fill the background except for a few patches of sky, which are shiny gold. The torso of a person holding an open book floats high above the crowd, cut off by the top edge of the painting. The person wears a dark blue robe over a pink garment and is surrounded by a ring made of the red wings of winged, blond baby heads with gold halos. Gold rays radiate out from the ring.
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A person wearing a black hood and cloak over a white long-sleeved garment stands in a wooden box, a pulpit, and speaks to a crowd gathered below in this vertical painting. The people all have pale skin tinged with green and pink cheeks. The preacher stands along the right side of the painting, his mouth open and both hands held up. He faces our left almost in profile, and his forehead, eyes, and mouth are deeply lined. Seventeen men and women sit or stand across the front of the crowd or at the far side of it. They wear garments in rose pink, fog gray, sapphire blue, vivid red, or black. Five of them sit along a wooden rail or bench closest to us with their backs facing out. Between this and the standing people on the far side of the crowd are dozens of heads, mostly covered with white cloths though a few have blond hair. Buildings in gray, pale pink, or white stone fill the background except for a few patches of sky, which are shiny gold. The torso of a person holding an open book floats high above the crowd, cut off by the top edge of the painting. The person wears a dark blue robe over a pink garment and is surrounded by a ring made of the red wings of winged, blond baby heads with gold halos. Gold rays radiate out from the ring.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Dominican Preaching

Agnolo degli Erri

Date
c. 1470
Medium
tempera on poplar panel
Dimensions
overall: 43 x 34 cm (16 15/16 x 13 3/8 in.) framed: 65.1 x 55.6 x 7.6 cm (25 5/8 x 21 7/8 x 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1941.5.2
Credit line
Gift of Frieda Schiff Warburg in memory of her husband, Felix M. Warburg
Time span
1401 to 1500
Department
CIS-R

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • punched design
  • incised (indented with stylus)
  • Renaissance
  • forms of worship
  • religious
  • Emilian
  • Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century
  • Preaching
Provenance

Commissioned c. 1470 for the old church of San Domenico, Modena; church demolished and rebuilt 1708, and its paintings perhaps dispersed at that time.[1] Baron Michele Lazzaroni, Rome, by 1925.[2] Mrs. Felix Warburg, New York, by 1936;[3] gift 1941 to NGA. [1] L. Vedriani, in _Raccolta de' pittori modonesi più celebri_, Modena, 1662: 23, noted that the St. Thomas Aquinas altarpiece was in a chapel on the rood screen of San Domenico. [2] It was first noted in the Lazzaroni collection by Bernard Berenson, "Nove pitture in cerca di un' attribuzione," _Dedalo_ 5 (1925): 607. [3] Bernard Berenson, _Pitture italiane del Rinascimento_, Milan, 1936: 323.

NGA object ID 894. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.