Religious habits and visual propaganda: The vision of the Blessed Reginald of Orléans

Shortly before joining the Dominican Order in 1218, the Blessed Reginald of Orléans received a vision of the Virgin Mary in which she presented him with the black and white habit of the Order of Preachers. The vision was represented a surprising number of times in Italian art of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by artists including Nicola Pisano, Fra Angelico and Ottaviano Nelli. This article discusses the precise importance of the vision for the Dominican Order by investigating relevant historical, hagiographical and art-historical documentation. The sculpted and painted representations of the Vision of the Blessed Reginald demonstrate the importance of the Dominican habit: both within the Order as a means of imposing discipline, and for the laity as a means of recognition. This is emphasised in certain examples by the omission of Reginald, allowing the habit to be received by Saint Dominic, founder of the Order. The representations of the subject are the visual expression of a concern voiced in written accounts of Dominic's life, in General Chapters, and in other Dominican writings, as well as in the tantalising scraps of information that survive regarding the efforts made to ensure that no one order visually resembled another. © 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All righst reserved.