Saint Bernard

Saint Bernard (1090-1153) was the first Abbot of Clairvaux, a Cistercian monastery that he founded in 1116 in northeastern France. Here the abbot is shown standing before a cloth of honor, reading a book and holding a crozier. He is set against a rustic landscape with monastic outbuildings, including a dovecote at the far right. The calm and quotidian activity of monastic life is evoked by the quietness of the scene.