The oldest information we have to date about an image of the Carmelite saint, Albert degli Abati of Trapani, comes from the end of the 14th century. In the inventory of the Carmine of Florence complied in 1391 with additions in 1397–98, we read of “a tabernacle of gilt bronze with enamel with the arms of Pietro di Caglie dantonii of the relics of St Albert of Trapani, who was a friar of S. Maria del Carmine”.

A few years later, the Carmelite general chapter of 1420 decreed that there should be an image of Albert “with rays” in every convent, an evident sign of the reputation for sanctity which he then possessed. In this way the iconography of the saint began its development.

Among the first known pictures executed after this decree are those which we owe to the graceful and charming brush of Filippo Lippi (1406–1469), who portrayed him four times. In chronological order, Lippi painted him for the first time in the work called the Madonna of Trivulzio, finished before 1431 and now in the museum of Castello Sforzesco in Milan. The saint appears in the background on the right of the scene, kneeling with a lily in his hand and talking with another Carmelite saint, Angelus of Sicily. The next is another work from his youth, a panel with the Madonna enthroned with saints now in the Museo della Collegiata in Empoli, which represents the saint in the act of offering a lily to the Madonna. In the panel of the Coronation of the Virgin, known as the Mazzinghi Coronation, completed between 1439 and 1447 and now in the Uffizi in Florence, Lippi again represents the saint among angels honouring the Madonna under a shower of lilies. Finally, he chose to represent the figure of St Albert again, placing him in a cycle of frescoes with stories of St Stephen and St John the Baptist which he carried out in 1462–1465 for the choir of the cathedral of Prato. Here the saint appears, without attributes, in a contemplative pose on a column at the left, watching the scene of the preaching of the Baptist.

From the end of the 15th century is a very beautiful panel attributed to Tommaso de Vigilia, who painted it for the Carmine Maggiore of Palermo, where it is still admired. It depicts the saint with a lily in his right hand and a book in his left, whose pages seem as though they are being ruffled by the wind.

A German woodcut from the end of the 15th century shows St Albert, along with the other “father of the Order”, Angelus of Sicily, alongside a group consisting of the Madonna, St Anne and the Child Jesus. This motif of the two patres Ordinis at either side of the Madonna, each with his characteristic attribute (the lily and the palm), will subsequently recur in prints of the official device of the Order, the so-called vexillum Ordinis, and later continue to be symbolised in the two upper stars which appear on the Carmelite shield, while the Madonna was symbolised by the star placed at the centre of the stylised Mount Carmel. We should note, too, that in southern Italy the Carmelite shield has often been represented without stars, but rather with a lily and a palm, a clear reference to the two Sicilian saints.

From the end of the 15th century through the modern era and into contemporary times there has been further development of artistic production in honour of the saint. Pictures of Albert, archival sources make clear, were in practically all the convents and monasteries of the Order, and in many cases churches and convents had more than one image. Rather than offer a catalogue of these images, it will be more useful here to mention some examples of the characteristics and various attributes and different modes of composition with which our saint has been presented.

In particular, he appears beside the Madonna, holding a lily in his right hand and a open book in the left in which one can read the words of the Marian antiphon Sub tuum praesidium. The oldest example is the 1487 fresco by Giovanni Maria da Brescia in the second chapel on the left side of the sanctuary of San Felice del Benaco. A similar painting, but of a later date, is in the parish church of Sirmione.

In other works the attributes of lily and book remain the same, but the book is closed in the saint’s hand, which often is also holding on to his white cloak. He appears in this way in a painting by Nicola Rondinelli in the Accademia of Ravenna, and in the centre of an altarpiece attributed to Francesco Pinna (ca. 1600) in the Carmine of Cagliari. He is portrayed again with lily in hand on the wing of a polyptych in the Iarves Collection of New Haven attributed to a follower of Agnolo Gaddi, and in a painting by Gerolamo Muziano in the church of San Martino ai Monti. Lily and book become the traditional attributes in Albertine iconography, followed again in the canvas painted in 1952 by Galimberti for the chapel of the International College of St Albert in Rome.

There are also paintings and statues which feature only the attribute of the lily in the saint’s right hand. Among the statues the most beautiful is the one in silver crafted in the 18th century by the engraver Vincenzo Bonaiuto of Trapani for the saint’s altar in the basilica of Trapani, which should strictly be also considered a reliquary since the skull of the saint is contained in the head.

Sometimes a crucifix is added to the lily and book, as can be seen in a 15th–century Carmelite Missal preserved in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. This is a theme which was often taken up in Spain, the most outstanding example being the polychrome statue by Alonso Cano executed for the Carmelite convent in Seville. With the three attributes of lily, book and crucifix the saint is represented in the mosaics above the altars of the right nave in the Carmine of Cagliari, carried out by the architect Pierotti about fifty years ago, when the church was reconstructed after the destruction due to bombing during World War II.

Other images of the saint from the 15th and 16th centuries add the figure of a devil to the attributes already mentioned. There are three variants of this theme. The first represents the devil in chains at the feet of the saint, as in an engraving of the 15th century in the Stadtbibliothek Bamberg, Germany. A second variant shows the devil attempting to seize a lamp which the saint is holding in his right hand. A third and more widespread variant shows the devil in the form of a woman under the saint’s feet, as in the fresco of Albert surrounded with medallions of other Carmelite saints (1470) in front of the arch of the apse in the Carmine of San Felice del Benaco, and in 16th-century paintings in Carmelite churches in Bergamo, Modena and Florence.

From the end of the 17th century, there are many paintings which feature the Madonna showing the Child Jesus to St Albert, as in the Carmine of Genoa, or the Madonna surrounded by saints including Albert, as in the Carmelite church in Mesagne or the convent of St Hermengild (today the parish of St Joseph) in Madrid. In a painting of the Pietà of 1515 now in the Pinacoteca of Turin the celebrated Francesco Francia shows the saint alongside the Virgin, a theme taken up again by Andrea del Sarto in a Deposition in the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Another variant of the Madonna with Albert and other saints is found in a painting in Ghent attributed to François in which the Virgin appears to be showing the way to them, while St Albert kneels at their feet and offers a lily to the Child Jesus.

There are also 17th-century canvasses with groups of Carmelite saints which include St Albert, among them the two paintings in the second chapel on the right and in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in San Martino Maggiore in Bologna, paintings respectively by Cesare Gennari and Alessandro Tiarini.

From the modern era there are numerous compositions featuring scenes from the life, death and miracles of the saint. He is depicted saving some Jews from drowning in a scene above the lavabo of the Carmine of Florence, and in the fresco of the counterfacade of the chapel of Masseria Monaci (Martina Franca), carried out in 1709 by Generoso Cavallo. A recurrent scene in paintings which depict the miracles is his healing of the sick with water: interesting examples include the altarpiece by Pietro Liberi (1638) in the Carmini of Venice, and the image in the Sforza Golden Book in the British Museum in London. The water associated with the saint also appears in the choir of the Carmine of Brescia, while the Carmine in Padua has a statue of the saint (with lily and crucifix) carved by Giovanni Bonazza and placed above the holy water font with the inscription Mundi estote.

Other paintings, statues and engravings recall the saint’s miraculous protection of the besieged city of Messina. Among them we can note the painting in the chapel of St Albert in Trapani, and closer to our own time a life-size wooden statue from the workshop of Obletter of Ortisei was installed in 1955, beneath the feet of which are the stern and prow of the historic “vascelluzzo” which came to the city through the intercession of the saint, and a flowing banner inviting the city to rejoice in having so great a protector.

There are cycles which depict scenes from the life of the saint, including notable ones in Antequera in Spain, Forlì and Rome. The paintings in the choir in Antequera are the work of an eclectic 17th–century painter from Seville influenced by Roelas, Pacheco and Herrera. They depict the saint’s reception of the Carmelite habit, his death, and his burial. Among these pictures the one of the saint’s death while he is supported by his brothers is very evocative and dramatic.

The second of these cycles in the chapel of St Albert in the Carmine of Forlì, shows St Albert healing a blind man on the altarpiece, in the style of Giuseppe Marchetti (1722–1801), even though it has been attributed to Paolo Cignani. Another two miracles are depicted in the ovals above the doors, attributed to Antonio Fanzaresi, who painted them in 1752. The first shows St Albert as he miraculously makes supplies arrive in the besieged Messina, while the second presents him as he saves some shipwrecked Jews, who then convert to Christianity.

The third cycle is the one in the chapel dedicated to the saint in the church of Traspontina in Rome, which the prior general Sebastiano Fantoni had decorated at the beginning of the 17th century. The altarpiece represents the saint standing with a lily in his right hand and a glory of angels above his head, and is the work of Antonio Pomarancio (1570–ca. 1630). In the octagon at the centre of the vault the same artist has painted the saint’s birth, and in the side panels some scenes from his life, his vesting on the right and a miracle on the left. On the side walls Pomarancio continued the scenes from Albert’s life in two large frescoes depicting his preaching and his death.

There are also notable cycles in the Carmelite churches of Venice and Brescia, and in the cloisters of the convents of Verona and Lugo.

To conclude, these notes on the iconography of St Albert call to mind the curious history of a painting in which the saint appears half-length with a lily and book and the legend in Latin, Studiorum mecenati divo Alberto theologiae bacconicae candidati tabulam inaugurarunt 1704. The painting is in the Centro Internazionale S. Alberto in Rome. The origin of this painting, by an unknown artist, is linked to a dispute between the Carmelite theology students in the studium generale of the Order, which at that time was in Traspontina and named after St Albert, and the prior general Giovanni Feijo of Villalobos. In 1692 he had issued a series of demanding decrees about studies in the Order, constituting a program which proved impractical, especially in the houses of studies in Italy, and which gave rise to numerous protests from various regions. When the prior general attempted to give effect to his decrees in the studium generale of Traspontina, the students appealed to the Holy See. After a controversy lasting several years and involving also the subsequent prior general, Carlo Filiberto Barbieri, the students succeeded in having their “rights” recognised by the Holy See and by the general chapter of 1704. It was the occasion for the students to have a painting made of their protector and in a sign of reverence to present it to the prior general.

Translated by Paul Chandler, O.Carm.