Thebaid

Italian artist Fra Angelico painted this panoramic scene of hermit monks around 1420. The Thebaid refers to the desert region around Thebes in Egypt where early Christian hermits lived in caves and rocky shelters. Across the sprawling landscape, monks pray, read, work, and encounter one another in an idealized vision of monastic life.

The title comes from writings about the Desert Fathers who retreated to Egypt's wilderness in the third and fourth centuries. Their lives inspired later monastic reform movements. Fra Angelico, himself a Dominican friar, celebrated these spiritual ancestors in loving detail. Attribution has been debated; some scholars proposed Lorenzo Monaco or Gherardo Starnina. Technical examination in 2003 supported Fra Angelico's authorship. The long, low panel may have decorated a communal room in a monastery. It hangs at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.