The Four Doctors of the Western Church: Saint Ambrose
attributed to Gerard Seghers (Antwerp 1591 – Antwerp 1651)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1650
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1143 x 1422 mm (45 x 56 in)
Place of origin
Antwerp
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset (Accredited Museum)
NT 1257057
Caption
St Ambrose, one of the Four Fathers of the Latin Church, is writing DE FIDE AD GRATIANUM AUGUSTUM/ Assertio nostra Fidei har. est. He was acclaimed Bishop of Milan in 374, and baptised St Augustine in 387. His symbol is a beehive, because of the swarm of bees that is supposed to have alighted on his lips when in the cradle – a presage of his eloquence
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Four Doctors of the Western Church: Saint Ambrose (c.339-397), Bishop of Milan, attributed to Gerard Seghers (Antwerp 1591 – Antwerp 1651). Half-length, turned right, wearing a bishop's mitre and a cope decorated with an embroidered panel of the Coronation of the Virgin & holding a book in which he inscribes: 'DE FIDE AD GRATIANUM AUGUSTUM / Assertio nostra Fidei har. est'; an angel holding a crozier stands to the left background.
Provenance
first recorded in 1731(?); bequeathed by Ralph Bankes, 1981
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
[..]rtio / nostrar / Fidei / har est (in iatalics in painting, right-hand page of book)
Makers and roles
attributed to Gerard Seghers (Antwerp 1591 – Antwerp 1651), artist attributed to Abraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck ('s Hertogenbosch 1596 - Antwerp 1675) , artist