La Thébaïde

The Thebaid is a tempera painting on canvas that Paolo Uccello executed around 1460. Its title refers to the Thebaid, a desert region near Thebes in Egypt where the first Christian hermits lived. Rather than telling a single story, the work gathers episodes from the lives of several monastic and eremitic saints within one landscape. At the top centre, Francis of Assisi receives the stigmata from a vision of Christ as a seraph; in the centre, Jerome kneels before a crucifix in his cave; at the lower left, Bernard of Clairvaux sees a vision of the Virgin Mary, and at the lower right Benedict of Nursia preaches to his monks. Around them appear scenes of everyday monastic life: flagellants gathered beneath Christ on the cross, a monastery surrounded by tilled fields, and a fortified town in the distance. The result reads like a devotional map that invites the viewer to follow, step by step, the many forms of withdrawn life dedicated to God. The painting is now housed in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.

Painter

Paolo Uccello

Date

1460

Medium

tempera, canvas

Dimensions

81 × 110 cm

Museum

Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence

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