The Death of Saint Benedict: Predella Panel

This predella panel depicting the Death of Saint Benedict was painted by Lorenzo Monaco around 1409 for an altarpiece now partially in the National Gallery, London. The scene belongs to a cycle illustrating the life of Saint Benedict, founder of Western monasticism, a subject with special resonance for Lorenzo Monaco as a Camaldolese monk. Lorenzo Monaco — Piero di Giovanni — was a Camaldolese monk who became one of Florence's most gifted painters in the transition between the Gothic and the Early Renaissance.

The small-scale narrative scene is rendered with characteristic precision and economy, using a shallow architectural space and carefully composed figure groups to convey the solemnity of the saint's passing.