Augustine baptized by Ambrose

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was a Florentine painter active in the late Trecento whose work formed a bridge between Giotto's legacy and the emerging International Gothic style. His depiction of Augustine's baptism by Ambrose of Milan illustrates a pivotal episode from the Confessions: Augustine's conversion and baptism at Easter 387 AD in Milan, which ended his years of intellectual wandering. Gerini's Augustinian commissions were likely for the order's Florentine houses, where scenes from the saint's life served both historical commemoration and devotional instruction.

Gerini works in fresco-derived tempera with the gold ground still dominant, using the schematic architectural setting — a simplified baptistery facade — to frame the sacramental act. His figure types retain the Grotesque monumentality of the previous generation, with Ambrose's bishop's vestments handled in layered gold and white.