דרשנות אמנות וסגפנות ברנסנס האיטלקי

An important question in the field of sermon studies is the relationship between preaching and art, particularly the manner in which preachers used works of art in their preaching and the ways in which such artworks were represented in the sermons. This article examines several pictorial examples of the preaching of major preachers in Tuscany. It aims to demonstrate the power of art in depicting preaching and to show how these images were used as part of the commemoration of preaching events, as well as to promote the cult of mendicant saints in Renaissance Florence. The images show the close affinity between preachers and their listeners; the location of the preaching was determined on the basis of the sermon tradition and preachers’ needs. The pictorial evidence highlights the use of simple, portable wooden pulpits or plain marble structures as preaching aids. Preachers were represented as preaching to attentive audiences either in city squares or within churches. While one could raise doubts about the fidelity of visual images, which have a stereotypical and symbolic character, to actual preaching events, and argue that such events ought to be seen in the context of the cult of the specific preacher-saint, these images nevertheless display fascinating details about the preacher and his audience