The Vision of Saint Bernard

Domenico Puligo painted this Vision of Saint Bernard around 1520, depicting the Cistercian saint's mystical encounter with the Virgin. Puligo's distinctive soft, atmospheric style made his devotional paintings particularly suited to subjects of mystical vision. The 1520s were a decade of transition, marked by the deaths of Raphael and Leonardo, the shock of the Reformation, and the beginnings of Mannerist experimentation.

The panel shows Puligo's characteristic hazy sfumato and warm golden tonality, creating an appropriately dreamlike atmosphere for the mystical vision subject.