Saint Lawrence

This panel of Saint Lawrence by Bernardo Daddi, painted around 1340, exemplifies the refined devotional art produced in Florence during the generation after Giotto. Daddi, Giotto's most accomplished pupil, ran one of Florence's busiest workshops and specialized in small-scale devotional panels and polyptych wings for Florentine churches. The depiction of Saint Lawrence, deacon and martyr, would have served as part of a larger altarpiece ensemble in a Milanese or Florentine ecclesiastical setting, now preserved at the Pinacoteca di Brera.

Painted in egg tempera on panel with gilded background, the work shows Daddi's characteristic sweetness of expression and delicate modeling. The figure's soft drapery folds and gentle facial features reflect his synthesis of Giotto's monumentality with Sienese decorative elegance.