Saint Thomas d'Aquin

Jacopo del Casentino was a Florentine painter active in the first half of the fourteenth century, a follower of the Giottesque tradition who also served as one of the founding members of the Compagnia di San Luca, the Florentine painters' guild. This depiction of Saint Thomas Aquinas reflects the Dominican order's promotion of their greatest theologian, canonized in 1323. Such images served as devotional aids in Dominican churches and were frequently incorporated into polyptych altarpieces.

Egg tempera on a gold-ground panel, displaying Jacopo's characteristic miniaturist precision and jewel-like color. The saint is rendered with careful attention to his Dominican habit and attributes, framed within a tooled and punched gold background typical of early Trecento Florentine workshop practice.