Saint Jean Baptiste

Cecco di Pietro was a leading painter in fourteenth-century Pisa, working in a style that bridged Sienese refinement and local Pisan traditions. This depiction of Saint John the Baptist, now in the Musee du Petit Palais in Avignon, likely formed part of a polyptych altarpiece for a Pisan church. The Baptist was a particularly revered figure in Tuscan devotion, frequently appearing as a patron saint in civic and ecclesiastical commissions.

Painted in egg tempera on panel with gold ground, the figure of the Baptist is rendered with firm outlines and restrained modeling. Cecco's style shows the influence of Sienese painters like Simone Martini in its attention to decorative surface pattern and elegant drapery folds.