A Dominican Preaching c. 1470

Agnolo degli Erri painted “A Dominican Preaching” in tempera on wood in fifteenth-century Italy. The painting depicts a scene where a Dominican friar delivers a sermon to a crowd of men and women of various ages and social classes. In Renaissance Italy, religious orders like the Dominicans held significant cultural and political influence. Their sermons were not only religious instructions, but also a means of social commentary. The architecture and the clothing indicate the social context of the painting, while the open book held by angels above the preacher emphasizes the importance of religious text. Historical sources can help us to reconstruct what role Dominicans played in the transformation of Italian society during that time. Close reading of the picture alongside historical documents might reveal what this painting tells us about the complex relationship between religion, society, and art in the Italian Renaissance.