The Madonna with Child and St. John the Baptist and St. Peter the Martyr

The lunette comes from the portal of the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato alle Case Rotte, where a confraternity existed to assist those condemned to death.For this reason, John the Baptist is represented using an unusual iconography - he shows his own severed head, and the Dominican, Peter the Martyr, bears the instrument of his martyrdom on his head.
The lunette is remarkable for the aristocratic air of the Virgin, the refined linearity of the drapery and the macabre realism of the details, from the pallor of the severed head to the emaciated face of the friar.
Given that the oratory was built between 1420 and 1428, it is likely that the fresco was painted about the 1440s by one of Michelino da Besozzo's collaborators.