St. Dominic is a 1505 religious painting by early Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli. It is located in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Analysis of Botticelli’s St. Dominic
The painting depicts the Saint traveling on foot in an Italian landscape while raising his hand in praise to the heavens where we see what appears to be God enthroned and flanked by trumpeting angels.
The celestial figures are painted in gold and golden threads of sanctity are raining down on the saint, the founder of the austere Dominican order. His sole accompaniment for his journey is a book of scripture which he clasps to his left hip and his expression is one of awe at his vision.
St. Dominic is a late work of Botticelli’s, from 1505, and bears a certain influence of penance and self-denial which reminds us of his being formerly under the influence of the Florentine preacher and iconoclast Girolamo Savonarola.