Anonymous - Lactation of Saint Bernard

Anonymous - Lactation of Saint Bernard
  • Title: Lactation of Saint Bernard
  • Artist: Anonymous (?-?)
  • Date: c.1480
  • Medium: Oil on panel
  • Dimensions: 39 x 26 cm

This small painted panel shows a scene of the legend of Saint Bernard, who was very popular in the Cistercian order. This is the miracle of Chatillon-sur-Seine, in which the saint invoked the Virgin by saying "show me that you are my mother". The latter spouted milk from her breast into the mouth of Saint Bernard...

The Virgin, who is sitting under a Venetian velvet canopy, gently holds the Child on her knees. Saint Bernard is dressed in the Cistercian costume, an open book in his left hand and coming out of his mouth is the invocation “Monstra te esse matrem”. The characters stand out in the foreground of a beautiful hilly landscape, which dominates a Gothic abbey and cloister buildings that are planted at the top of an escarpment; nearby, two clerics converse.

In this painting, Saint Bernard's face is personalised face, perhaps was it a portrait?

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