The Cloisters Panel 'Scenes from the Life of Saint Augustine': A study in late medieval iconography and Augustinian spirituality

This study investigates The Cloisters panel painting Scenes from the Life of St. Augustine assigned to the anonymous painter The Master of St. Augustine by Max Friedländer in 1937. Chapter one outlines the current state of research available on the panel. Chapter two reviews the assemblage of the oeuvre and examines The Cloisters panel's relationship to each painting assigned by Friedländer. Chapter three traces the historical development of Augustinian hagiography and the timely emergence of each scenes that is included in the narrative cycle; while chapter four discusses the Rule of St. Augustine and the historical role played by the Hermit Friars and the Canons Regular in the increased demand for Augustinian cycles during the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Chapter five suggests that Augustinian spirituality and the devout lay communities known as the New Devotionalists were influential in determining the pictorial program of The Cloisters Panel.;In the final chapter, the study argues that Augustine is depicted as a secular canon active in the instruction of the laity. It also suggests that The Cloisters Panel was designed to engage the viewer to imagine his own position within the church at a time when formal religious practices were being challenged. Furthermore, the investigation concludes that while the image appears traditional and predictable there are certain anomalies not previously identified. For example, the depiction of two laymen holding episcopal crosiers in the center foreground is a pictorial curiosity that challenges the traditions of episcopal authority by placing the symbol of pastoral authority in the hands of the laity. This suggests that The Cloisters Panel is embedded with more than a simple narrative cycle of a saint's life. The result of this work not only broadens the spectrum of current research it exposes certain anomalies previously unrecognized by the modern viewer.