Scenes from the Life of Saint Zenobius is a series of paintings by the Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. Four panels from the series survive, which are now in three different museums.[1] Each depicts three or more incidents from the life of Zenobius, an early Bishop of Florence who perhaps died in 417. The works are all in tempera on wood, and around 66 cm (26 in) high, though their length varies rather more, from about 149 to 182 cm (59 to 72 in).[2]
The National Gallery in London has two panels. One of these, Four Scenes from the Early Life of Saint Zenobius shows (left to right): Zenobius rejects the bride chosen by his parents, then walks away; Zenobius is baptized; his mother is baptized by the bishop of Florence; he is consecrated as Bishop of Florence by Pope Damasus (this in Rome). The second London panel shows Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius.[3] The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has a panel with another three miracles, also called by them Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius.[4] The Gemäldegalerie in Dresden has a panel showing a miracle in three scenes, and the death of the saint.[5]
It is generally agreed that the paintings come from the last phase of Botticelli's career, perhaps c. 1500–1505; some authorities regard them as possibly the artist's latest surviving works.[6]
- ^ Davies, 108–109
- ^ Davies, 108–109
- ^ Davies, 108–109; Christiansen
- ^ Christiansen
- ^ Davies, 109; Dresden, they call it Aus dem Leben des heiligen Zenobius.
- ^ Davies, 109; Christiansen, who cites the Ettlingers and Lightbown as regarding them as possibly the latest. Lightbown (in 1989) calls them, with the Histories of Lucretia and Verginia "the last surviving large paintings", dating them "c. 1500–1505" and the histories "c. 1496–1504", but then discussing the unfinished Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi, "c. 1500–1505") last of all, on p.279.