St. Bernard of Siena

This panel represents St. Bernard of Siena, a fifteenth-century Franciscan preacher. Known for his treatment of plague victims in Siena, he is accompanied at his feet by several figures miraculously cured by his work, as well as portraits of donors. Above him, angels carry his principal attribute, a disk inscribed with the letters IHS—the monograph of Jesus' name in Greek.

This anonymous panel can be dated to shortly after 1450, the year of St. Bernard's canonization. It thus belongs to King Alfonso V's reign in Naples, and the monarch's emblem is represented on the painting's tiled floor. The painter was likely one of the many Spanish artists the Aragonese King brought to his Neapolitan court, who then fused his style with the Flemish manner of local painters like Colantonio.