• Author: Giovanni di Francesco Toscani
• Date: 1423 - 1424
• Collection: PAINTING
• Technique: Tempera and gold on wood panel
• Dimensions: 47x 75,5 cm (with frame)
• Inventory: Inv. 1890 nn. 3333

The predella panel illustrates two different episodes: on the left, Saint Francis praying on La Verna receives the stigmata from Christ, who appears to him in the form of a seraphim; on the right, Saint Nicholas saves a vessel from being shipwrecked near the coast. He suddenly appears in the sky to the three sailors struggling to hold the ropes tied to the mast, resting a hand on the sail swollen by the strong wind.

It was the left predella panel of the polyptych that adorned the altar of the Chapel of Saint Nicholas in the Church of Santa Trinita in Florence, commissioned by Piero di Neri and Piero di Jacopo Ardinghelli to Giovanni di Francesco Toscani between 1423 and 1424, together with the frescoed decoration of the walls with stories of the holy bishop of Bari. The altarpiece, now broken up and dispersed in various museum collections, also included three hinged top panels with the Crucifixion, the Announcing Angel and the Virgin Annunciate, also exhibited in the Galleria dell’Accademia. The polyptych may originally have included a monstrance in the centre, like the one painted by Sassetta for the Arte della Lana in Siena.

Giovanni di Francesco Toscani may have trained with Ghiberti while working on the work site of the north door of the Baptistery, and the influence of the late great Gothic sculptor is evident in the compositional solutions, the lithe rhythms and elegant poses of the figures in the polyptych. The work, however, primarily marks the painter’s immediate reaction to the altarpiece with the Adoration of the Magi painted in the same years by Gentile da Fabriano (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi), which was displayed on the altar of the sacristy of Santa Trinita, under the patronage of the Strozzi, just opposite the Ardinghelli Chapel.

Centrale pinnacle: Crucifixion
Left pinnacle: Announcing Angel
Right pinnacle: Virgin Annunciate