St. John the Baptist and St. Francis of Assisi

Cosimo Rosselli painted Saints John the Baptist and Francis of Assisi around 1500 in Florence. Rosselli was a solid, if unspectacular, Florentine painter who participated in the 1481-82 Sistine Chapel decorations alongside Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and Perugino. His workmanlike style maintained established Florentine conventions without great innovation. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

Tempera and oil on panel with conventional Florentine draftsmanship and coloring. The paired saints are rendered with competent, if somewhat formulaic, attention to their traditional attributes and poses.