Saint Benedict Orders Saint Maurus to the Rescue of Saint Placidus
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
About this painting
Gregory tells it: Placidus went for water and fell in; Benedict, in his cell, knew it and sent Maurus, who ran over the lake, caught the boy by the hair, and only on land saw what he had crossed. Lippi is gentler. His rescuer bends and touches the boy's shoulders while the pitcher still fills.
Every figure wears ivory white. Tolomei clothed his first monks in white under Benedict's Rule in 1319, and the panel may come from the Olivetans' altarpiece at San Bernardo in Arezzo. If so, Benedict is dressed as the men who ordered him.
Sources: National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1952.5.10 · National Gallery of Art, artist page, Fra Filippo Lippi, image description for 1952.5.10 · Gregory the Great, Dialogues, Book II, chapter 7 (Life of St Benedict), OSB edition · Samuel H. Kress Foundation, Kress Collection, 'Saint Benedict Orders Saint Maurus to the Rescue of Saint Placidus', K1342 · Catholic Encyclopedia (1911), 'Olivetans', New Advent
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 27,026 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.