L'Intronisation de saint Flavien de Recanati

Giacomo da Recanati's L'Intronisation de saint Flavien de Recanati (The Enthronement of Saint Flavian of Recanati), painted around 1450 and now in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, depicts a purely local subject — the formal installation of Flavian as bishop of Recanati, a small Adriatic city in the Marches region of Italy. Flavian was a local saint of limited regional fame, and this painting represents the highly localized devotional culture that produced an enormous quantity of panel paintings celebrating saints and events of purely local significance throughout the Italian peninsula.

Tempera on panel. The enthronement ceremony shows Flavian formally installed in his bishop's throne, surrounded by the assembled clergy in a ceremonial architectural setting. Episcopal vestments are rendered with care for their liturgical significance.