Saints Bartholomew and George (polyptych, panel 2 of 5)

This panel showing Saints Bartholomew and George belongs to a five-part polyptych by Bernardo Daddi, dated 1348 — the very year the Black Death devastated Florence. Daddi, a pupil of Giotto, was the most prolific Florentine panel painter of the second quarter of the Trecento, specializing in intimate devotional works. Now in the Courtauld Gallery, London, this polyptych panel reflects the intense demand for sacred images in a society confronting plague and mortality.

Egg tempera on gold-ground panel with delicate punch-work decoration in the haloes. Daddi's style softens Giotto's monumental forms into a more graceful, lyrical idiom with refined facial features and flowing drapery.