Adoring Saints: Right Main Tier Panel

A company of richly dressed saints, their gilded haloes stamped with elaborate patterns, gaze at something on their right, or turn to talk to each other. This painting is part of a large multi-panelled altarpiece made for the Camaldolite monastery of San Benedetto fuori della Porta Pinti in Florence and they are looking at an image of the coronation of the Virgin (also in the National Gallery’s collection). Arranged in three tiers, they are carefully structured so that their gestures and colours balance and echo those in the facing panel, giving the whole altarpiece an almost musical harmony.

The saints here would have been well known to the monks of San Benedetto. At the very front is Saint Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese Order, wearing the white habit of the Camaldolites. Next to him, dressed in yellow and blue and holding a large key, is Saint Peter, the first pope and founder of the Catholic Church.