Background on the Panel

The Story of the Martyrs

“These five saints were all skilled in the art of sculpture and refused to fashion an idol for Diocletian or to offer sacrifice in any way. The emperor therefore ordered them to be placed alive in lead coffins and thrown into the sea, about A.D. 287.”* - Jacobus de Voragine [1]

The story of the sculptor saints who sacrificed their lives by refusing to commit idolatry made them a sensible choice as the patron saints of the Florentine Guild of Stonemasons and Woodworkers. [2]

*Jacobus describes two different groups of martyrs (a set of four original martyrs, and a later five) with stories that overlap in historical accounts. More recent studies identify the five saints from this quote with the Four Crowned Martyrs. 

 

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History of This Panel

This panel has been identified as part of a narrative comprised of four panels. The companion panels are in the Denver Art Museum, the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, and in a private collection in Florence. [3] The DAM panel depicts the saints in front of Diocletian before their punishment, and the BMA panel depicts their execution, so it is clear that the panel at the PMA is a middle panel in the narrative, although there is no available information about the privately owned panel.

These paintings comprise a section of an altarpiece from the church of Orsanmichele in Florence, painted between 1385 and 1390. [4]

 

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1. De Voragine, Jacobus. The Golden Legend: Reading on the Saints, vol. 2, trans. William Granger Ryan.

2. Daneo, Angelica. "The Four Crowned Martyrs before Diocletian by Niccolò Di Pietro Gerini." The Kress Collection at the Denver Art Museum. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2011. 

3. "Scourging of the Four Crowned Martyrs." Philadelphia Museum of Art. Web. 26 Apr. 2017.

4. Daneo, Angelica. "The Four Crowned Martyrs before Diocletian by Niccolò Di Pietro Gerini."The Kress Collection at the Denver Art Museum. Denver: Denver Art Museum, 2011.

 

Background on the Panel