Processional Banner, Spinello Aretino, circa 1395–1400

Processional banner// during the middle ages laymen often joined religious confraternities in which they met for devotions and performed charitable acts. Their hooded robes rendered such acts anonymous, in conformity with christ's injunction that good works should not be done for vain praise. This extremely rare work was commissioned in about 1395–1400 by the confraternity of saint mary magdalene in borgo san sepolcro and would have been carried in religious processions. On one side it shows the members of the confraternity kneeling before their patron saint, who is serenaded by a choir of angels. Mary magdalene's ointment jar decorates the sleeves of their robes. On the reverse side is the flagellation of christ—a reminder of the penitential practices the confraternity would have performed. The lightly drawn features of the face of christ are modern; the original was removed in the nineteenth century and is now in the camposanto teutonico, rome. The banner is otherwise remarkably well preserved. Object Type: painting. Genre: religious art. Date: circa 1395–1400. Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art. Spinello Aretino 013