St Bruno surrounded by angels with a crosier and a mitre 1548 - 1612

Bernardino Poccetti made this drawing of Saint Bruno surrounded by angels with pen and brown ink in Italy sometime between 1563 and 1612. The sketch offers an insight into the visual culture of Counter-Reformation Italy. Religious orders held considerable power in Italy at this time. They were both social institutions and patrons of the arts. Poccetti received many commissions from the Church. Here, Saint Bruno is venerated by angelic figures. Note the crosier and mitre, symbols of high ecclesiastical office, presented to the Saint by putti, cherubic infant angels. The image suggests that Bruno is being offered a position of power within the Church. To understand an artwork like this more fully, we can look at the social and institutional context of its creation, researching the power of the church in Florence at the time, and how artists like Poccetti served its ideological projects. These kinds of historical resources can help us understand the public role of art in the early modern period.