The Four Latin Fathers.
In the most ancient churches the Four Doctors are placed after the Evangelists. In the later churches they are seen combined or grouped with the evangelists, occasionally also with the sibyls; but this seems a mistake. The appropriate place of the sibyls is neither with the evangelists nor the fathers, but among the prophets, where Michael Angelo has placed them.
Where the principal subject is the glory of Christ, or the coronation or assumption of the Virgin, the Four Fathers attend with their books as witnesses and interpreters.
1. A conspicuous instance of this treatment is the dome of San Giovanni at Parma. In the centre is the ascension of Christ, around are the twelve apostles gazing upwards; below them, in the spandrils of the arches, as if bearing record, are the Four Evangelists, each with a Doctor of the Church seated by him as interpreter: St. Matthew is attended by St. Jerome; St. Mark, by St. Gregory; St. Luke, by St. Augustine; and St. John, by St. Ambrose.
2. A picture in the Louvre by Pier-Francesco Sacchi (A.D. 1640) represents the Four Doctors, attended, or rather inspired, by the mystic symbols of the Four Evangelists. They are seated at a table, under a canopy sustained by slender pillars, and appear in deep consultation: near St. Augustine is the eagle; St. Gregory has the ox; St. Jerome, the angel; and St. Ambrose, the lion.
3. In a well-known woodcut after Titian, ‘The Triumph of Christ,’ the Redeemer is seated in a car drawn by the Four Evangelists; while the Four Latin Doctors, one at each wheel, put forth all their strength to urge it on. The patriarchs and prophets precede, the martyrs and confessors of the faith follow, in grand procession.
4. In a Coronation of the Virgin, very singularly treated, we have Christ and the Virgin on a high platform or throne, sustained by columns; in the space underneath, between these columns, is a group of unwinged angels, holding the instruments of the Passion. (Or, as I have sometimes thought, this beautiful group may be the souls of the Innocents, their proper place being under the throne of Christ.) On each side a vast company of prophets, apostles, saints, and martyrs, ranged tier above tier. Immediately in front, and on the steps of the throne, are the Four Evangelists, seated each with his symbol and book: behind them the Four Fathers, also seated. This picture, which as a painting is singularly beautiful, the execution finished, and the heads most characteristic and expressive, may be said to comprise a complete system of the theology of the middle ages.[245]