Saint Bonaventure Arriving and Preaching in Lyon 1480 - 1490

This print of Saint Bonaventure arriving and preaching in Lyon was made in France sometime in the fifteenth century. At the top, a large tondo encloses the Holy Trinity, surrounded by a choir of angels. Below, the artist depicts Saint Bonaventure arriving in Lyon and preaching to a crowd. The image relies on visual codes that would have been well known to the people of its time. The iconography of the angels, the Trinity, and the city itself would have been instantly recognizable, reinforcing the authority of the church. Note, though, that Saint Bonaventure seems to preach outside the city’s walls. To understand this picture more fully, we might research the place of Lyon in the medieval church. We might also ask questions about the social function of prints like this. Were they devotional objects? Souvenirs of a religious event? Or were they a form of propaganda, designed to reinforce religious authority? These are the kinds of questions historians ask to better understand art.