Saint Augustine Giving the Habit of His Order to Three Catechumens
Girolamo Genga
Italian (Umbrian School), c. 1476−1551
c. 1516−1518
Tempera and oil on poplar panel
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Girolamo Genga studied with High Renaissance masters Perugino and Raphael. This painting was one of several small paintings intended for the base (predella) of an altarpiece once installed in the Church of Saint Augustine in the northern Italian city of Cesena. In the center is the pious Saint Augustine. He is giving a black habit to a neophyte Christian who kneels before him.