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Bernardino Lanino (Italian, about 1512-1583)
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints and Donors, 1552
Oil on panel, 92 3/8 x 60 1/2 in. (234.7 x 153.7 cm.)
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 60.17.45
The rosaries held by the female donors, the scattered roses (symbols of the rosary), and the presence of numerous Dominican saints indicate that the altarpiece must have been painted for a church, monastery, or lay organization (confraternity) of the Domi nican Order. Rosaries are used by Roman Catholics to recite meditational prayers on events from the life of the Virgin. Dominicans attributed the invention of the rosary to St. Dominic (1170-1221), the founder of their Order, to whom the Virgin was said to have appeared in a vision. She presented him with a string of beads, each bead referring to a sorrow and joy of her life, that Dominic called "Our Lady's crown of roses." The six Dominican saints standing behind the kneeling donors can be identified as: Dominic, holding lilies, symbols of chastity, and a model of a church; Antonio Pierozzi of Florence, emptying a money bag, symbolic of his charity; Thomas Aquinas, wearing a star on his breast and holding a lily and a book; Vincent Ferrer, holding a flaming heart, symbolizing his religious zeal and fiery preaching; Peter Martyr, holding a martyr's palm, his head cleft with a blade; and Catherine of Siena, holding a crucifix and lilies and wearing the crown of thorns she received from Christ in a vision.
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