Adoration of the Shepherds between Saints Augustin and Galgano

The painter's original composition, with "pointy" and slightly bizzarre figures that remind us of those of Paolo Uccello, shows an extraordinary balance between the spatial and luminist innovations of Masaccio and Domenico Veneziano, and the Sienese tradition, which is overwhlemingly present here in the gem-like colours, the gold background and the refined Gothic carpentry. It also repeats the tipology of the fourteenth-century altarpieces of the patron saints in Siena Cathedral: a triptych with a narrative central scene, flanked by two saints. In the middle is a delightful Nativity, by the sides are Saints Augustine (the panel was painted for an altarpiece in the church of Saint Augustin in Asciano) and Galganus (recognizable by the sword in the stone, alluding to the his decision of abandoning his life as a knight to embrace that of the hermit). In the background, a beautiful landscape stretches into the distance till the seaside.