Prophets. Jeremiah 1311

Duccio painted this image of the prophet Jeremiah in Italy sometime in the early 1300s. We see him holding a scroll, and wearing classical robes of red and blue. But who was he painted for? What was its place in society? The answer to these questions lies in the institutional history of the church at the time. During the medieval period, religious images had a very important public role. They were commissioned by the church, and displayed in public places as a didactic tool to teach stories from the bible. Note how the golden background signifies divinity and the scroll emphasizes the importance of scripture. The historian's role is to understand the social conditions that shaped artistic production. We look at documentary evidence of the time, and we examine the political and economic structures that influenced the artist. By doing so, we understand that art is contingent on the social and institutional context in which it was made.