The Blessed Agostino Novello Assigning the Habit of the Hospital to the Rector
by VECCHIETTA, Tempera on panel
The picture shows one of the panels of the outer shutters of the Arliquiera. Believed to have written the rule for the hospital community of Augustinian tertiaries, Agostino Novello, an Augustinian friar, is accordingly shown in the act of bestowing the mantle of office on the kneeling figure of a rector - it seems reasonable to suppose that it may be intended as a portrait of Urbano di Pietro del Bello, who was rector of the Spedale between 1444 and 1450.