Saints Pictured Counting on Their Fingers to Denote Preaching

Saints Counting on Their Fingers

In late medieval and Renaissance art a saint's act of teaching or explaining Christian doctrine is denoted by his or her counting on fingers. Examples include the following:

1366-67: In Bonaiuto's The Church Militant and The Church Triumphant St. Peter of Verona counts on his fingers as he addresses an unreceptive crowd of heretics.
1380: Cenni di Francesco di Ser Cenni's St. Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers.
1393: In the lower register of this manuscript illustration Daniel counts on his fingers as he successfully interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream.
First half of the 15th century: Top left panel of Master Francke's St. Barbara Altar.
1490: In the lower right panel of the St. Augustine Altarpiece at the Cloisters, the saint uses the gesture in teaching the Trinity.
1492: Pinturicchio's Disputation of St. Catherine (McDowell, 170).
1492-95: Jan Polack's St. Peter as Teacher.
1512-1517: Giralte de Bruselas's sculpture group of the Boy Jesus among the Doctors.
Not dated: In a statue group in the parish church of Kelheim, Germany, St. Anne addresses the young Virgin Mary with her fingers held in the teaching-doctrine configuration.

Prepared in 2021 by Richard Stracke, Emeritus Professor of English, Augusta University.

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