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Secondary sourcePainting1495-1498 (painting); slide 1839-1939

Saint Benedict, Flavia and Placidus

Pietro Perugino · 1495-1498 (painting); slide 1839-1939

A lantern slide photograph of Perugino's Renaissance painting showing Benedict grouped with other saints, now in the Vatican.

Shows Benedict as a venerated saint grouped with other saintly figures in a Renaissance Vatican painting.

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Lantern slide of a triptych painting in sepia tones with three panels: on the left a bald monk with hands clasped in prayer and gazing upward beside a curved scythe-like object; in the center a woman with a crown and hands clasped, looking upward; on the right a bearded older man in a hood holding a cross-like staff and a book. A label reads Perugino, Benoît et ste Flavie, Rome Pinacothèque Vaticane, and Université de Louvain appears on a green strip below.
Pietro Perugino, Saint Benedict, Flavia and Placidus, 1495-1498. Lantern slide, KU Leuven, after painting in Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City.

About this source

What it is

This is a lantern slide, a photographic copy used for teaching, of a painting by Pietro Perugino made between 1495 and 1498. The original painting, now in the Vatican Pinacoteca, shows Benedict alongside the saints Flavia and Placidus. The slide itself was produced for art history teaching at the Université de Louvain sometime between 1839 and 1939.

Why it matters

The painting shows how Renaissance artists like Perugino depicted Benedict as a holy figure worthy of veneration, grouped with other saints associated with his tradition. The slide also shows how images of historical figures were reproduced and used for education long after they were painted.

Look closer

  • What gestures or objects does each figure hold, and what might they symbolise?
  • Why might Perugino have chosen to paint Benedict alongside these particular saints?
  • How does the fact that this is a copy (a slide of a painting) change how we should read it as a historical source?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Saint Benedict on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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