St. Benedict on the Bishop’s Throne Amidst the Doctors of the Church

St. Benedict of Nursia, a founder of Christian monasticism, is enthroned on high. From his privileged position, he promulgates the rule of his eponymous order, which will become the tenet of diverse religious orders across Christendom. Two of Benedict’s earliest followers, saints Maurus and Placidus, stand beside him wearing black Benedictine habits. In the foreground, the four Doctors of the Church discuss theology amongst themselves.

Sabatini’s workshop completed this painting following the master’s death in 1530. It was the centerpiece of a multistoried and double-sided altarpiece for the great Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, south of Rome. This panel faced the nave, which is to say the congregation rather than the monks behind the altar. Dismantled in the seventeenth century, the ensemble’s nine surviving fragments are shared between Capodimonte and Monte Cassino.