Saint Gregory the Great

Description This painting is from a series depicting famous theologians (scholars who studied and wrote about the nature of God) for the ceiling of the library in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. St. Gregory the Great (AD 540-604) was one of the four Latin Church Fathers (along with Sts. Jerome, Augustine, and Ambrose). As pope, he instituted many reforms of the church service. An angel holds his papal tiara. He is shown here as if seen from below, with the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, suggesting the divine inspiration of his religious writings. In the library, the image would have provided a model of scholarship and piety for the studious Dominican friars.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/28/1977	Treatment	repaired
4/09/1984	Treatment	other

Exhibitions

• Undercover Stories in Art. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1980.

Provenance Carlton M. Slagle, Jr., [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1976, by gift.

Credit Gift of Carlton M. Slagle, Jr., in memory of his grandfather, Charles W. Slagle, 1976