Saint Reparata Tortured with Red-Hot Irons

Bernardo Daddi's Saint Reparata Tortured with Red-Hot Irons, painted around 1337–1338 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is another panel from his predella cycle depicting the martyrdom of Florence's original patron saint. The scene shows the brutal torment of the young Christian woman, a subject that was meant to inspire both devotion and civic pride in Florentine viewers who identified their city with her fortitude. Daddi's treatment balances the violence of the subject with his characteristically restrained and elegant pictorial language, making the scene devotionally powerful without gratuitous brutality.

Painted in tempera and gold on panel in the horizontal predella format, the torture scene is composed with Daddi's typical clarity, placing the saint at center surrounded by her tormentors. The figures show Daddi's refined drawing with graceful proportions and gentle facial modeling, while the background employs a simple gold ground or architectural setting to focus attention on the narrative action.