Nicolò di Pietro
St. Augustine Delivers the Rule to His Disciples

1404
Tempera and gold on wood panel
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

From a predella. St. Augustine wears a mitre and cope signifying his role as a bishop. Under the cope is the black habit of the Augustinian order, which he is often shown wearing in portraits in Augustinian establishments. Friars of the order, tonsured and also in the black habit, surround him. The book on his lap bears the first words of the Rule: Ante omnia, fratres carissimi, diligatur Deus deinde ac proximus, "Before all else, my beloved brothers, God is to be loved, and then one's neighbor."

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Also see the first and fourth of the four panels in the predella.
Read more about St. Augustine.

Photographed at the museum by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.