Seven Scenes from the Legend of St. Stephen, ca. 1390

About the Work

Altarpieces dedicated to a single saint generally stood on side altars. In fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century Italy they often adhered to the so-called vita retable type, in which scenes from the life of the saint formed a U-shaped garland around a depiction of that saint at the centre. Originally, Martino di Bartolomeo’s vita retable of St Stephen was probably installed in the church of Sant’ Agostino in Siena. Only its narrative pictures have survived; the literally central image of the saint has been lost.