GOZZOLI, Benozzo
(b. ca. 1420, Firenze, d. 1497, Pistoia)

Arrival of St Augustine in Milan (scene 8, north wall)

1464-65
Fresco, 220 x 230 cm
Apsidal chapel, Sant'Agostino, San Gimignano

The first picture in the second row on the left shows the Arrival of St Augustine in Milan. In front of a columned loggia, which is reminiscent of the Loggia dei Lanzi (between 1376 and 1381) with three bays in Florence, St Augustine appears in several small simultaneous scenes. Here Benozzo makes a more decisive use than he did in Montefalco of the opportunities of emphasizing the scenes in the picture by means of the architecture: in one place, the saint is standing in front of a column, and at another between two columns.

In the Arrival of St Augustine in Milan, Benozzo once again combines three scenes from the legend of St Augustine as simultaneous events. On the first occasion St Augustine appears before the columned loggia and a servant is helping him take off his riding clothes. In the background, the saint is kneeling before a Muslim scholar. In the foreground on the right we can see St Augustine being greeted by St Ambrose.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.