St. Benedictus.

Andrea di Bartolo's Saint Benedict (c. 1397) depicts the founder of Western monasticism, one of the most venerated saints in medieval Italy. Andrea di Bartolo was a leading Sienese painter of the late fourteenth century, the son and pupil of Bartolo di Fredi, who continued the family workshop's prolific production of altarpieces and devotional panels. His elegant, refined style represents the final flowering of the Sienese Gothic tradition before the innovations of the early fifteenth century transformed Italian painting.

Tempera and gold on panel depicting the saint in a standing, frontal pose with his characteristic attributes. Andrea di Bartolo's technique shows refined linearity and delicate coloring inherited from the Sienese tradition, with intricate gold tooling on the halo and background.