Scenes with St Ambrose (scene 9, north wall)

Scenes with St Ambrose is scene 9 on the north wall of the Sant'Agostino cycle at San Gimignano, painted by Benozzo Gozzoli in 1464. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, was the single most important figure in Augustine's conversion to Christianity — Augustine heard Ambrose preach and was struck both by his eloquence and his interpretation of scripture. The north wall scenes depict events in Milan, where Augustine arrived, was drawn to Ambrose's preaching, and ultimately received baptism. Gozzoli treats Ambrose with the full weight of episcopal dignity, showing the bishop in his liturgical context and his relationship to Augustine with clarity and narrative economy.

The relationship between Ambrose's episcopal authority — displayed through vestments, setting, and attendant clergy — and Augustine's position as a seeking layman is rendered through careful compositional placement and scale. Gozzoli's color in these north-wall scenes is particularly well preserved, with the blues of Ambrose's liturgical context contrasting with the warmer tones of Augustine's Roman academic dress. The architectural setting of the Milan scenes is more elaborate than the Carthage and Tagaste scenes on the south wall.