The Glory of St Dominic 1739

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted "The Glory of St Dominic" in the 18th century as a ceiling fresco. Dominic, founder of the Dominican Order, is swept upwards to heaven surrounded by angels. Visual codes and historical associations would have been apparent to viewers in the Catholic, Counter-Reformation Italy that produced this image. The painting itself formed part of an institutional program, designed to support the religious order. This spectacle of upward movement presents the viewer with a specific worldview that equates religious devotion with spiritual ascension, thereby reinforcing the power of the church. To understand the artwork better, scholars might research the history of the Dominican Order, or study the visual conventions of Baroque religious painting. Approaching art with an eye for its original social and institutional context allows us to understand its meaning as something contingent, rather than universal.