Processional banner, about 1370

Processional banner
Painted by Barnaba da Modena (active about 1367–89)
Tempera and gilding on canvas
Genoa, Italy
About 1370
Museum no. 781-1894

This banner belonged to a flagellant confraternity, a lay organisation that tended the sick and buried the dead. Members of these confraternities whipped themselves in public to express remorse for their sins. the flagellants, shown kneeling on the reverse of the banner, have holes in their robes to allow this.