Storie di san Vincenzo Ferrer

Ercole de' Roberti's predella panels depicting miracles of San Vincenzo Ferrer were painted for the altar of the Dominican saint in San Pietro in Vincoli, Ferrara, around 1473. Vincenzo Ferrer, the Spanish Dominican who died in 1419 and was canonised in 1455, was a relatively new saint whose miracles were still actively promoted by the Dominican order. Roberti, then in his early twenties working under Francesco del Cossa, brought to the cycle an intense expressive energy and spatial compression that marked him as one of the most original minds in Ferrarese painting.

Roberti's predella panels are remarkably small-scale yet densely packed with figures. His characteristic staccato brushwork gives surfaces a nervous energy; the miracle scenes use abrupt spatial jumps between foreground figures and deep architectural backdrops. His palette is dominated by the sharp contrasts — acid greens, deep reds — typical of the Ferrarese school.