Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 April 2023
In a painting of ca. 1500–5 (Fig. 1), the Augustinian saint Nicholas of Tolentino (1246–1305, can. 1446) miraculously saves two young men from execution at the gallows. Dressed in the black robes of the Augustinian order, Nicholas appears in the center of the compositional space, supporting the bodies of the condemned men with an effortless grace. The panel, now in Pisa, would have originally been part of a multiscene predella placed below a painted image of Nicholas crowned in glory.1 Before its late eighteenth-century dismantling, the ensemble would have been found in a prominent and easily accessible location – a nave chapel – in the church of Sant’Agostino, the principal Augustinian friary in the north Umbrian town of Città di Castello.2 In this open and bustling viewing context, the image of Nicholas’s miraculous act, juxtaposed with the figure of the saint, would have reached a wide and diverse audience from all walks of life.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.