Saints Julian, James, and Michael

Agnolo Gaddi painted this panel of Saints Julian, James, and Michael around 1390, likely as a lateral wing of a polyptych altarpiece. Julian the Hospitaller, patron of travelers and innkeepers, James the Greater (identified by his pilgrim's staff), and the archangel Michael formed a powerful triad of protective saints for medieval travelers and pilgrims. Gaddi, who worked extensively for Florentine churches including his celebrated fresco cycle in Santa Croce, was the leading Florentine painter of the 1380s and 1390s.

The panel is painted in egg tempera with gold ground and features Gaddi's mature style with its characteristic warm tonality and gentle modeling. The three standing saints are arranged in a shallow spatial setting with tooled gold haloes and decorative punchwork borders typical of late Trecento Florentine panel painting.