The Taking of Saint Peter

Jacopo di Cione's Taking of Saint Peter, painted around 1370, depicts the arrest of the apostle before his martyrdom in Rome — a subject with deep resonance in the Gothic period when Peter's authority was central to papal claims. Jacopo was the youngest of the Cione brothers (the others being Andrea/Orcagna and Nardo), who together dominated Florentine painting in the decades following the Black Death of 1348. His workshop was among the most productive in late Trecento Florence.

Executed in tempera and gold on panel, likely as part of a predella or narrative cycle, the composition conveys dramatic tension through the crowding of armored soldiers around the saint. The modeling of figures with strong chiaroscuro and the spatial arrangement reflect the Orcagna workshop's characteristic blend of narrative clarity and monumental form.