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This painting formed a panel of the predella of the dismembered altarpiece in the Carmelite church San Niccolò al Carmine in Siena. The five scenes in the predella depict events in the history of the Carmelite Order: The Annunciation to Sobac, Hermits at the Fountain of Elijah, St Albert Presents the Rule to the Carmelites, The Pope Issues a Bull to a Carmelite Delegation, and The Approval of the New Carmelite Habit by Pope Honorius IV.
The history of the Carmelites began in the tenth century BC with the dream of Elijah's father, Sobac, in which men dressed in white predicted that his son would have many followers.
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