,%20Birmingham%20Museum%20of%20Art_2.jpg) |
| *Giovanni di Ser Giovanni, San Bernardino Preaching Italian, Mid-15th Century Birmingham (AL), Birmingham Museum of Art |
Saint Bernardino of Siena is a saint who is little recognized
in the United States today, except perhaps by the residents of San Bernardino,
California, which is named after him.
However, for many centuries, and especially in Italy, he was one of the
most widely known of the medieval saints.
He also has the distinction of being one of the first saints whose real
face has come down to us. We actually
know what he looked like in life. He is
also responsible for promoting one of the best known and most ubiquitous symbols of Catholic
Christian culture.
Early Life
Bernardino Albizzeschi was born in the south Tuscan town of
Massa Marittima, not far from Siena, in 1380.1 By the age of six
both of his parents had died and he was brought up by an aunt. As a child he would have followed the usual
medieval studies, the trivium and quadrivium, what we would think of as a basic
and advanced elementary education. While
still a young teenager he joined the Confraternity of Our Lady at a hospital
attached to one of the churches in the town.
There he helped take care of the sick while also studying law, both
civil and canon. His family may have
expected him to become a lawyer or civic officer, following in the footsteps of
his father, who had been the town governor.
But God had other plans for him.
In 1400, when Bernardino was 20 years old, the plague, which
had wrought such terrible devastation in Europe in the middle years of the
fourteenth century, returned to Tuscany.
When it got to Massa Marittima the entire weight of caring for its
victims fell on the shoulders of Bernardino and ten companions whom he
organized. The four months spent
battling the plague, which no doubt he also caught, left him with ill health
for the rest of his life. However, this
didn’t stop him.
 |
| Bernardino Capitelli, San Bernardino Enters the Franciscan Order From The Life of Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1610-1639 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
He joined the Observant branch of the Franciscan order in 1403
and was ordained a priest in 1404. His prior
education probably gave him a boost in preparation. He was charged with a special preaching
ministry the following year and began his career as an important preacher
throughout Italy. This was his principal
career for the rest of his life, in spite of a break from 1438-1442 during
which he served as Vicar General of the Observant Franciscans.
Stirring Preacher
In addition to being a Scholastic philosopher, Bernardino
was, by all accounts, a very effective colloquial preacher, characterized as
being able to express complex contemporary thought into simple, colloquial
language that could be understood by everyone.
 |
| *Saint Bernardino of Siena Preaching From De vita christiana Italian, Before 1444 Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Canon. Misc. 312, fol. 44r |
However, his preaching was not without controversy, both in his own time
and in ours. For one thing, he didn’t
preach just on the readings of the day, as is so common now, but about the hard
things, the sins that people commit against God, each other and themselves,
which are not always mentioned in Scripture.
This is never easy stuff, then or now.
It is unsettling. It makes some
people feel ashamed, it makes others penitent, it makes some angry. Among Bernardino’s topics were: usury (the
charging of interest on borrowed money), the ethics of business, whether the
acquisition of wealth could be a good thing (he proposed that it could be
useful for society as a whole), homosexuality, condemnation of the abuse of
women, emotionally and physically. As
good preaching should be, it was as contrary to expectations then as it would
be now. But my concerns here are not
with any of these topics.
 |
| Attributed to Sassetta, Saint Bernardino Preaching Predella of a full length portrait of Saint Bernardino Italian, c. 1444 Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale
In this picture, probably painted by someone who knew him, the dove of the Holy Spirit is shown whispering in the saint's ear as he speaks.
|
What I am interested in is something else entirely. It is the way in which Bernardino and his
preaching have impacted the history of art, especially of the art of his home
town and of Italy during the Quattrocento as a whole. As has been said “More than any other figure Bernardino
fostered the perpetuation of earlier imagery, but he himself
became the new subject. It is as if his physical appearance encouraged realism
in Sienese art”.2
At that time in Italy preaching had the kind of appeal that
today we associate with spectator sports like baseball or football. Preachers often drew huge crowds to
hear them. The crowds were often too
large for any church to hold, so wooden pulpits were often set up in town
squares to accommodate the crowds. We have evidence of this from paintings and from the wonderful sketch book of Jacopo Bellini of Venice now at the British Museum.
 |
| *Jacopo Bellini, Saint Bernardino of Siena Preaching From the Sketch-Book of Jacopo Bellini Italian, c. 1440-1470 London, British Museum Saint Bernardino preached in Venice in 1443, the year before his death. so Bellini probably saw him. |
We
have several images of such events early in the iconography of Saint
Bernardino, painted or sketched by artists who could actually have been present
for the events depicted. In these
pictures Bernardino is often depicted holding one or other symbol as a kind of prop, often while gesturing with his free hand. One of the symbols is the crucifix, the other is the symbol
for the Holy Name of Jesus, which he himself designed. Bernardino himself seems
to have been very interested in art, commissioning several paintings and
statues for his convent and for churches in the city and referring to examples in
his sermons.3
 | ||
| Sano di Pietro. Saint Bernardino Preaching at the Church of San Francesco in Siena Italian, 1445 Siena, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
In this picture the pulpit is set up on the extreme right of the picture.
|
 |
| *Studio of Lorenzo Vecchietta, Saint Bernardino Preaching Italian, c. 1450-1480 Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery The pulpit in this picture is directly above the head of the young man in the light blue cloak standing slightly to the left of center. Trumpeters are announcing the beginning of the sermon just above the head of the man in the pink cloak a few steps to the right. |
 | ||
| Sano di Pietro, Saint Bernardino Preaching Italian, c. 1460-1480 Private Collection
This picture shows a more intimate setting. It may even be an indoor one (note the tapestry on the walls) or perhaps in the courtyard of a private home. The audience would seem to be just one family and their servants.
|
 |
| St. Bernardino Preaching Polish, 1503 Jawor (Poland), Church of the Blessed Virgin
This wall painting shows that the story of the energy and power of Saint Bernardino's preaching had traveled all the way to Poland in just over 50 years.
|
The Holy Name of Jesus
The Holy
Name of Jesus is one of the principal things about which Bernardino
preached. This must have been his most
burning topic, for it is the one by which his name (and even his face) have
been transmitted to the present and the one that got him into the most trouble
in his own lifetime. It may have developed
as he dealt with a practical problem. As
readers of the works of Dante will remember, this is the time in which the
patchwork of small states that comprised the Italian peninsula following the
fall of the Western Roman Empire, were bitterly divided into two powerful
warring factions, the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Dante was a White Guelph, a further
subdivision of the Guelph party, which caused him to be exiled from Florence by
fellow Guelphs of the opposing part of the party when it took control of the
city. In general, the Guelphs supported
the Pope on the Italian peninsula, while the Ghibellines supported the position
and influence of the Holy Roman Emperor.
All of the towns of Italy belonged to one or the other
faction, which frequently led to warfare between them. Individual families and city governments
often placed emblems of the faction to which they belonged on the walls of the
town buildings, even of the churches. One
of Bernardino’s main roles as a preacher was to encourage peace among people
and among the city-states. In the course
of his efforts he came up with a symbol which he proposed to everyone as a
replacement for these politicized emblems.
He designed a new symbol, incorporating a much older, Christian one,
which could override the political and lead to peace.
 |
| Dish with the Monogram of Christ Italian (Faenza), c.1500 London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
The symbol he designed was based on three letters
representing the first three letters of the name of Jesus “YHS or IHS”, known
as the Monogram of Jesus. At its most
basic, the symbol proposed by Bernardino is the three letters, in gold, painted on a wooden panel with a
deep blue background and surrounded by a golden sunburst of twelve large rays and many smaller ones. The Monogram of Jesus had been in use for
many centuries by the time San Bernardino began to propose surrounding it with
a sunburst. However, although the basic
use of the letters of the name of Jesus was centuries old, this innovation in
its display, and his preaching of it, brought him under suspicion in some
ecclesiastical quarters. He was summoned
to Rome in 1426 to stand trial for heresy.
Not only was he able to refute the charges, but he expressed himself so
well that the Pope invited him to preach to the papal household (a position
made permanent a bit over 100 years later and currently held by another
Franciscan, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, of the Capuchin branch of the
order).
 |
| Andrea del Castagno, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c.1450 Vetralla, Church of San Francesco |
Later Life
After preaching to the papal household, Bernardino returned
to his preaching in the towns of the Italian city-states, with a new
authority. This helped him to accomplish
some of his intentions of bringing peace to the warring factions while
spreading devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus.
During these years he was offered the office of bishop in three
different cities, Siena, Ferrara and Urbino, all of which he refused in order
to continue his itinerant preaching. Consequently,
his iconography may include three bishop’s miters.
 | ||||
| Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, Second Half of 15th Century Cremona, Museo Civico Ala Ponzone
|
,%20c.1469-1473_Los%20Angeles,%20J.%20Paul%20Getty%20Museum_MS%20Ludwig%20IX%2013,%20fol.%20195v_2.jpg)
However, he did accept the call to serve as Vicar General of
the Observant Friars Minor in 1438, which limited his preaching. He resigned as Vicar General in 1442 in order
to continue preaching the name of Jesus and was on a preaching tour of southern
Italy when he died on May 20, 1444.
 |
| Pinturicchio, Death of Saint Bernardino Italian, c. 1484-1486 Rome, Church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli, Capella Bufalini |
The First Portraits
Due to his renown and obviously holy life a movement for his canonization was undertaken within a few months of his death. He was indeed canonized within six years, on May 24, 1450. The movement for his canonization and its successful completion resulted in the creation of an iconography that is unique for his time, for the pictures presented to us are actual portraits.
Up to this time images of the saints or of those proposed
for sainthood were largely idealized.
They were recognizably human faces, but without individuality. This began to change with the images of Saint
Bernardino. At his death a wax cast of
his face was made. Thanks to this death
mask, artists were able to produce images that actually are identifiable as
real portraits. Saint Bernardino is,
therefore, the very first saint whose distinctive, individual face can be
recognized with reasonable accuracy.
And, it is impressive how carefully artists followed the death
mask. We can easily recognize the small
oval face, with the distinctive sunken cheeks, toothless mouth and pointy chin
in every painting in which he is represented.
 |
| Death Mask of Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, 1444 L'Aquila, Convent of San Bernardino |
His image was widely spread during the six years between his
death and his canonization by numerous works derived from the death mask
model. Further, many of the first artists to produce works with his image had actually known and even worked with and for him. So, for them, he was a living memory. Some of the early images depict only his head and
shoulders, others (following a picture commissioned almost immediately by
Giovanni da Capestrano, another Observant Franciscan and later a saint himself)
included his entire body.
 |
| *Sano di Pietro_Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, 1445-1460 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection |
 |
| Sano Di Pietro, Saint Bernardino Italian, c. 1444-1450 Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale |
 |
| Giovanni di Paolo Italian, c.1450 Trequanda, Confraternity of the Holy Trinity and St. Bernardino |
 |
| *Sano di Pietro, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1460-1470 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lehman Collection |
 |
| Anonymous, Saint Bernardino Italian, c. 1450 Casarano, Church of Our Lady of Sorrows |
Especially influential in dispersing the actual portrait was a medallion designed by the artist Antonio Marescotti, based on the earliest images and, possibly, on a plaster cast taken from the death mask. This little work in metal was able to travel wide and far. 4
 | ||
| Antonio Marescotti, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1444-1450 Washington, National Gallery of Art
The text surrounding the portrait is taken from Acts 1:1 "Coepit facere et posta docere" (from the words of the Acts writer regarding all that Jesus began to do and teach)
|
Diffusion of His Image
Following his canonization, the Franciscan order encouraged the distribution of the image of their newest saint through commissions for their churches throughout Italy and beyond. |
| *Jacopo Bellini, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1450-1455 Private Collection |
 |
| Style of Veccietta, Bust of St. Bernardino Italian, Mid-15th Century London, Victoria and Albert Museum |
 |
| Vincenzo Foppa, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1450 Pisa, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio |
 |
| *Giorgio Schiavone, Saint Bernardino of Siena From the Sant' Niccolo Altarpiece, Padua Italian, c. 1456-1461 London, National Gallery |
 |
| Lorenzo d'Alessandro, St. Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1475-1500 Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais |
 |
| Andrea Mantegna, The Monogram of Christ with Saints Anthony of Padua and Bernardino of Siena Italian, 1452 Padua, Museo Antoniano The text that encircles the Monogram comes from Philippians 2:10 "In nomine Iesu omne genuflectatur caelestium et terrestrium et infernorum" (At the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven, on earth and under the earth). |
During the remainder of the fifteenth century Saint
Bernardino’s fame and face spread far and wide throughout Europe. And in the majority of these pictures he is
shown holding or pointing to the image of the holy name of Jesus, the symbol of
the devotion which he worked so hard to spread.
 |
| *Antonio Vivarini, Saints Jerome, Bernardino and Louis of Toulouse Italian, c. 1451-1456 Venice, San Francesco della Vigna |
Promoting Devotion to the Holy Name
 |
| Attributed to Domenico di Francesco d'Antonio, Saints Francis, Bernardino and Anthony of Padua Italian, c. 1451-1470 Cortona, Museo Diocesano |
 |
| Benvenuto di Giovanni, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1474 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection |
 |
| Vincenzo Foppa, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c.1495-1500 Washington, National Gallery of Art |
Preaching and Miracles
Other images focus on the reasons for the regard in which he
was held, primarily on his preaching and on his posthumous miracles.
 |
| Neroccio de' Landi, Saint Bernardine Preaching in the Campo Italian, c. 1470 Siena, Museo Civico, Palazzo Publico |
 |
| Domenico Beccafumi, Saint Bernardino Preaching Italian, c. 1537 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Sano di Pietro, San Bernardino Reviving a Drowned Infant Italian, c. 1450-1470 Private Collection |
 | ||||
| Sano di Pietro, San Bernardino Restoring the Child Carino, Drowned in a Millpond, to Life Italian, c. 1450-1470 Private Collection
|
,%20c.%201460_Los%20Angeles,%20J.%20Paul%20Getty%20Museum_MS%20Ludwid%20IX%2012,%20fol.%20334v_2.jpg)
 |
| Pietro Perugino, The Healing of a Mute by Saint Bernardino Italian, 1473 Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria |
 |
| Pietro Perugino, The Healing of a Young Girl by Saint Bernardino Italian, 1473 Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria |
 |
| Matteo di Giovanni, Saint Bernardino Restoring Life to Carino Aquila Drowned in a Millpond Italian, Early 1480s Private Collection |
As a Patron
Still others emphasized his power as an intercessor and patron.
 |
| Giovanni Antonio de'Ferrari, Saint Bernardino Presenting a Donor to the Virgin and Child Italian, Second Half of 15th Century Cremona, Museo Civico Ala Ponzone |
 |
| Gerard David, Canon Bernardino Salviati with Saints Martin, Bernardino and Donatiian Flemish, c. 1501-1506 London, National Gallery |
With Other Saints in the Sacra Conversazione
He is frequently, indeed very frequently, one
of the saints that appear in the so-called Sacra Conversazione type of
picture. In these saints accompany images
of the Madonna and Child or of biblical images.
 |
| Sano di Pietro, Madonna and Child with Saints Bernardino, Jerome and Two Angels Italian, c. 1450-1481 Detroit, Institute of Arts |
 |
| Sano di Pietro, Madonna and Child with Staints Jerome and Bernerdino of Siena Italian, c. 1450 Altenburg, Lindenau-Museum |
 |
| Sano di Pietro, Madonna and Child with Saints Jerome and Bernardino, with Angels Italian, c. 1450-1480 Siena, Basilica dell' Osservanza |
 | ||
| Zanobi di Jaopo di Piero Machiavelli, Madonna and Child Entroned with Saints Sebastian, Andrew, Bernardino, Paul, Lawrence and Augustine Italian, c. 1460s Boston, Museum
|
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| Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Nativity with Saints Bernardino and Thomas Aquinas Italian, c. 1475 Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale |
 |
| Alvise Vivarini, Madonna and Child with Saints Anne and Joachim and Saints Louis of Toulouse, Anthony of Padua, Francis of Assisi and Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1480 Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia |
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| Benozzo Gozzoli, Saints Nicholas of Tolentino, Roch, Sebastian and Bernardino of Siena with Kneeling Donors Italian, 1481 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Cima da Conegliano, Lamentation with Saints Francis of Assisi and Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1495-1505 Ferrara, Pinacoteca Nazionale-Gallerie Estensi |
 |
| Pietro Perugino, Madonna and Child with Saints Francis of Assisi and Bernardino of Siena Italian, 1496 Perugia, Museo Nazionale dell'Umbria |
 |
| Marco Meloni, M&C with Saints John the Baptist, Bernardino of Siena, Francis of Assisi and Jerome Italian, 1504 Modena, Galleria Estense di Modena |
 |
| Workshop of Luca Signorelli, Masonna and Child with Saints Michael,Anthony of Padua, Bernardino of Siena, and Nicolas of Myra Italian, c. 1510-1515 Cortona, Museo Diocesano |
Outside of Italy
His popularity was not restricted to Italy either. He frequently appears in works by artists
from Northern Europe and Spain.
 |
| *Saint Bernardino of Siena German, c.1465 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Master of the Legend of Saint Ursula, Saints Bernardino of Siena and Anthony Abbot Flemish, c. 1483 Indianapolis, Museum of Art |
 |
| Attributed to the Ghent Gradual Master, Saints Francis, Clare and Bernardino From a Prayer Book Flemish, c. 1460 London, British Library MS Stowe 23, fol. 62 |
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| Master of the Glorification of Mary, Saints Clare, Bernardino, Bonaventure and Francis German, c. 1480 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corbaud |
 |
| Saint Bernardino of Siena From a Prayer Book French (Paris), c. 1485-1495 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS H3, fol. 173v |
 |
| Master of St. Severin, Saints Louis of Toulouse and Bernardino of Siena German, c.1500 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum |
Continuing Popularity, Growing Idealization
His popularity continued for well over two centuries. However, as time passed, the connection of
the work of art and the portrait of the saint, so strong at the beginning,
began to diminish. Artists felt free to
give Saint Bernardino an idealized face that was not his own.
 |
| Girolamo dell Pecchia, Saint Bernardino with Two Angels Italian, c. 1510 Munich, Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek |
 |
| Attrib Bonifazio de'Pitati, Sacra Conversazione with Saints Jerome, Justina, Ursula and Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1520-1530 Bangor (Wales), Penrhyn Castle, National Trust |
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| Lorenzo Lotto, Sacra Conversazione with Saints Joseph, Bernardino of Siena, John the Baptist ans Anthony Abbot Italian, 1521 Bergamo, Church of Saint Bernardino in Pignolo |
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| Moretto da Brescia, Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Catherine of Siena with Saints Jerome, Joseph, Bernardino of Siena, Nicholas of Bari and Francis of Assisi Italian, c.1540-1545 London, National Gallery |
 |
| Anonymous Lombard Painter, Saint Bernardino of Siena with an Angel Italian, First half of 17th Century Sassuolo, Palazzo Ducale di Sassuolo |
 |
| Fulvio Signorini, Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1600 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
 |
| Ventura di Arcangelo Salimbeni, Holy Trinity with Saints Peter and Bernardino of Siena Italian, c. 1600 Ajaccio, Palais Fesch, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
 |
| El Greco, Saint Bernardino of Siena Greco-Spanish, 1603 Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado |
 |
| Carlo Bononi, Dead Christ Adored by Angels and Saints Sebastian and Bernardino of Siena Italian, Before 1618 Paris, Musée du Louvre
Only the Franciscan habit, the three miters and the edge of the Monogram peeking out from between two of them identify this figure as Saint Bernardino. Facial resemblance has been reimagined. |
 |
| Francesco Maffei, Madonna and Child with Saints Charles Borromeo, Bernardino of Siena and Anthony of Padua Italian, c, 1640 Sarzana, Oratorio del Carmine Here only the Monogram held near his head by a cherub identifies Saint Bernardino. |
 |
| Alonso Cano, Saint John of Capistrano and Saint Bernardino of Siena Spanish, c. 1653-1657 Grenada, Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada |
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| Antonio Raggi, San Bernardino of Siena Italian, 1660s Siena, Cathedral, Capella Chigi |
By the end of the eighteenth century his popularity began to
wane and by our time he has become rather obscure.
 |
| Donato Creti, Glorification of Saint Bernardino of Siena Italian, c.1700-1710 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
 |
| Giuseppe di Garbo, Saints Bonaventure, Bernardino and John of Capestrano Italian, c. 1768-1800 Castelbuono, Church of San Francesco |
 |
| Francisco de Goya, Sermon of Saint Bernardino of Siena Spanish, 1784 Madrid, Basilica of San Francisco el Grande |
© M. Duffy, 2020. Selected images update of 2024 indicated by *.
1. For the outline of
his life see: Robinson, Paschal. "St. Bernardine of Siena." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 20
May 2020 http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02505b.htm
2. Strehlke, Carl
Brandon. “Art and Culture in Renaissance Siena” in Christiansen, Keith; Kanter,
Laurence B.; Strehlke, Carl Brandon. Painting
in Renaissance Siena: 1420-1500, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
1988, p. 42.
3. Strehlke, Carl Brandon, op cit., p. 52.
4. For the beginnings
of the iconography of Saint Bernardino, especially regarding the use of the
funerary death mask see:
- Israëls, Machtelt. “Absence and Resemblance: Early Images of Bernardino of Siena and the Issue of Portraiture (With a New Proposal for Sassetta)”, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Vol. 11 (2007), pp. 72-114.
- Cobianchi, Robert. “Fashioning the Imagery of a Franciscan Observant Preacher: Early Renaissance Portraiture of Bernardino of Siena in Northern Italy”, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Vol. 12 (2009), pp. 55-83.
Scripture texts in this work
are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by
permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New
American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from
the copyright owner.
Quotations in Latin are
taken from the Latin Vulgate of Saint Jerome, which is available online at: a) https://www.newadvent.org/bible and
b) http://www.latinvulgate.com
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