LORENZETTI, Pietro
(b. ca. 1280, Siena, d. 1348, Siena)

Predella panel: The Approval of the New Carmelite Habit by Pope Honorius IV

1328-29
Tempera on wood
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

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 long central predella and the next two scenes represent the modern documented history of the Carmelite Order. Some time between 1206 and 1214, Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, traveled to Mount Carmel an presented the hermits with a Rule. The Rule was accepted by Pope Honorius III in 1226 with a papal bull. A further papal dispensation allowed for the alteration of the Carmelite habit, exchanging the black and white horizontally striped outer cape for a simple white one.




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