ABSTRACT

Since the publication in 1992 and 1994 of the proceedings of two conferences held at the convent of San nicola in Tolentino, both dedicated to art and spirituality in the Augustinian Order, there has been considerable interest in the Augustinians and their art.2 The subject of the present study is the fourteenth-century decorative programme in the choir of the Augustinian church of Ss giacomo e Filippo in Padua, better known as the Eremitani, on which some new perspectives have recently been offered, including the essay in this volume by Catherine Harding on the dado imagery of the presbytery walls.3 In 1992 Blume and Hansen proposed that, right from the inception of the Order of the Hermits of St Augustine in 1256, an attempt to reconcile the hermit life with the rule written by St Augustine in the late fourth century formed the basis of the order’s self-representation in images and texts.4 Proceeding from this line of enquiry Louise Bourdua established that the narrative scenes of Augustine’s life in the presbytery of

1 I am grateful to the editors, Louise Bourdua and Anne dunlop, and to Julian gardner, Catherine Harding and gillian Mackie for their valuable comments on earlier drafts. I wish to thank Prof. Allan Fitzgerald, OSA, for his suggestions and clarifications regarding Augustine and the Augustinians. Many thanks also to Prof. Tiziana Franco of the università di Verona and gianni Zanlorenzi of the Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientale e Architettonici per il Veneto Orientale for their assistance in my search for photographs.