St. Augustine in his Cell (detail, c.1480), by Sandro Botticelli (1444/5-1510), Church of Ognissanti, Florence
St Augustine (354-430 A.D.) famed as one of the Church’s greatest theologians appears in this detail from Botticelli’s fresco as a scholar in his study. Books crowd the shelf behind him together with other objects that might have filled a fifteenth-century thinker’s cell. The lavishly decorated bishop’s mitre reminds us of the saint’s high status. Botticelli depicts Augustine in a state of intense contemplation. His penetrating gaze appears directed beyond the space of his cell. With a searching gesture, his right hand hovers over his heart, conveying his absorption. According to tradition this moment recalls St Augustine’s vision of St Jerome to whom he was writing a letter at the very moment when St Jerome lay dying. In a text once attributed to St Augustine he describes how his study suddenly filled with a sweet perfume, and he heard the voice of St Jerome. Here in this moving image of faith seeking consolation, Botticelli reveals how a great theologian coped with personal grief. The artist captures in St Augustine’s gesture and expression the moment of enlightenment when grief turns to understanding. Botticelli imagines the saint’s study bathed in a light where objects take on the solidity and texture of lived reality. The viewer gazes upon St Augustine and recognises the emotional truths Botticelli evokes in this sympathetic exploration of faith seeking understanding.
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