Der heilige Augustinus in seiner Zelle

Botticelli painted this small panel in the early 1490s, the years when the friar Savonarola was preaching in Florence against luxury and worldly art, and it belongs to the plainer, more penitent work of his old age. It shows Saint Augustine alone at his desk, but look down at the floor. It is littered with crumpled sheets and worn-out quills, the debris of a mind straining to write about God and never quite satisfied. He wears a bishop's red cloak over the rough habit of an Augustinian friar, which is why it was probably made for the Augustinian house of Santo Spirito across the river. The whole thing is only about the size of a sheet of paper, meant to be looked at close, in private.