Sano di Pietro, Italian, 1405 – 1481

The Virgin and Child with Saints Jerome and Bernardino and Angels
Tempera on panel
Framed: 83.19 x 60.33 cm (32 3/4 x 23 3/4 inches)
Harvard Art Museum, Bequest of Lucy Wallace Porter
1962.284

On Saint Jerome
After . . . doing penance for four years, [Saint Jerome] went to the town of Bethlehem, and obtained permission to dwell at the Lord's crib like a domestic animal. Fasting each day until evening, he read over his own books, which he had collected with the greatest care, and others as well; and in time he gathered a large number of disciples. Thus he persevered in his holy resolution, and laboured for six months at the translation of the Scriptures.

The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine [c. 1260], ed. and trans. Ryan Granger and Helmut Ripperger (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 589.

On Saint Bernardino
There was . . . in Italy a famous Preacher, named Bernardin de Sienna, of the Order of the Minor Friers, who drew a Multitude of People after him by his Preachments, in all Parts of Italy, where he was receiv'd with great Applause. . . . 'Tis reported of this fame Bernardin, that when he saw Jesus Christ blotted out of the Hearts of Mankind, he thought fit to bespeak a fine Picture with Jesus Christ painted in the middle, and oblig'd the People to adore Jesus Christ in the said Picture; in which he was imitated by several Monks of the same Order, who expos'd the Picture to the Publick in their Processions.

James Lenfant, The History of the Council of Constance (c. 1700), trans. Stephen Whatley (London: Printed for A. Bettesworth, C. Rivington, J. Batley, T. Cox . . ., 1730), 2: 282.

Master of the Orcagnesque Misericordia, Italian, active 2nd half of the 14th century

The Marriage of the Virgin, 1370-75
Oil on panel
Framed: 31.75 x 44.77 cm (12 1/2 x 17 5/8 inches)
Harvard Art Museum, Gift of Dr. Lillian Malcove
1959.130

On The Marriage of the Virgin
[The Virgin Mary] had come to her fourteenth year. . . . And when the high priest went in to take counsel with God, a voice came forth from the oratory for all to hear, and said that of all the marriageable men of the house of David who had not yet taken a wife, each should bring a branch and lay it upon the altar, that one of the branches would burst into flower and upon it the Holy Ghost would come to rest in the form of a dove . . . that he to whom this branch belonged would be the one to whom the virgin should be espoused. Joseph was among the men who came. . . . Joseph placed a branch upon the altar, and . . . it was manifest to all that the Virgin was to become the spouse of Joseph.

The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine [c. 1260], ed. and trans. Ryan Granger and Helmut Ripperger (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 523-24.

Girolamo di Benvenuto, Italian, 1470 – 1524

Madonna and Child with Saints Nicholas of Tolentino, Monica, Augustine, and John the Evangelist, c. 1505
Tempera transferred onto modern panel
Framed: 201.61 x 243.21 cm (79 3/8 x 95 3/4 inches)
Harvard Art Museum, Gift of Edward W. Forbes in memory of Richard Norton
1927.206

On Saint John the Evangelist
John is the eagle, since he flew higher than the others, in writing of the divinity of Christ.

The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine [c. 1260], ed. and trans. Ryan Granger and Helmut Ripperger (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 624.

On Saint Nicholas of Tolentino with a Child's Face on His Chest
A miracle which blessed Nicholas told in his last days to a certain religious man that took heed to him when he was forsaken . . . in his childhood when he did help a priest to sing mass. When the blessed sacrament was lifted up our savior Jesus Christ appeared to him in the likeness of a fair child in a . . . garment and a bright shining face. . . . Saint Nicholas heard him saying these words: ". . . Innocents and good, harmless men . . . should have grace and [acceptance] of prayers."

Saynt Nycholas of tolletyne (London: Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1525), unpaginated.

On Saint Augustine and Saint Monica
The eminent doctor Augustine was born in the city of Carthage, in the province of Africa, of the most honourable parents, his father being Patricius, and his mother Monica. He was so well instructed in the liberal arts that he was held a great philosopher and a brilliant rhetorician. He studied and understood by himself all the books of Aristotle and the books of the liberal arts.

The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine [c. 1260], ed. and trans. Ryan Granger and Helmut Ripperger (New York: Arno Press, 1969), 486.