Saint Augustine

This 1473 Saint Augustine at the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo depicts one of the four Latin Doctors of the Church whose theological synthesis shaped Western Christianity. Augustine's Confessions — the first spiritual autobiography in Western literature — and his philosophical theology of grace, predestination, and the City of God made him the most influential theologian in Latin Christianity after Paul. Antonello's treatment of Augustine brings his characteristic psychological depth to the sacred subject, rendering the theologian's interior life through the concentrated expression and precise physiognomy of his portraiture skills applied to a sacred figure. The Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo preserves this alongside other key Antonello works in his native region.

The saint's episcopal vestments and scholarly attributes are rendered with Antonello's meticulous oil technique, the rich fabrics and metalwork demonstrating the material truth that his Netherlandish-influenced method made possible.