Fra Filippo Lippi, 'Seven Saints', about 1450-3

Seven saints talk and interact as though Lippi was painting an animated portrait of a group of historical figures. In fact, they all lived at a different times in history, and this gathering is purely imaginative. It might be intended to represent the saints gathered together in heaven, although they are shown in a wooded hillside.

Lippi has used traditional symbols to identify each figure. The group is framed on either side by two saints dressed in the habits (uniform) of the religious orders to which they belonged. On the far left is Saint Francis, founder of the Franciscans in the thirteenth century. His meditation on the suffering of Christ was so profound that he himself developed the wounds of the Crucifixion; here they emit rays of heavenly light. Mirroring him is Saint Peter Martyr, the knife embedded in his skull a reminder of his death.

The barefoot saint in the centre is Saint John the Baptist. He holds a slender cross, a reference to his prophecies about Christ and his ministries. He sits between Saints Cosmas and Damian; the little golden boxes on the ledge behind them are their medicine boxes, a reminder that they were doctors. Cosmas appears to be having a divine vision and raises his hands towards heaven, while Damian presses his palms together in prayer. Next to them are Saint Lawrence, on the left, and Saint Anthony Abbot, on the right. Saint Lawrence was burnt to death on a grill, which became his symbol – it rests against the bench by his side. Saint Anthony Abbot is shown as an old man with a wooden crook, because he lived as a hermit in the wilderness.

The painting and its pair came from the Palazzo Medici in Florence and the saints shown here have connections with members of the family. Saint John the Baptist, shown in the centre, represents Giovanni di Bicci, who had established the family’s wealth in the fourteenth century. Giovanni had four sons: Cosimo, Damiano, Antonio and Lorenzo, represented here by Saints Cosmas, Damian, Anthony Abbot and Lawrence. Cosimo’s sons Piero (later known as Piero the Gouty) and Giovanni are represented by Saint Peter Martyr and Saint John the Baptist (again); Piero’s father-in-law was called Francesco, which explains the presence of Saint Francis. Saint Lawrence might also have a connection to Cosimo’s grandson, born in 1449, who became known as ‘Lorenzo the Magnificent’. His other grandson, Giuliano, is not represented, though Saint Julian appears in another painting commissioned by the Medici. This suggests that our picture was made before Giuliano’s birth in 1453.

We don't know who exactly commissioned the panel. Piero the Gouty may have done so, to celebrate the birth of his son Lorenzo. Or it might have been ordered by Pierfrancesco di Lorenzo di Giovanni di Bicci, whose name saints Peter and Francis frame the composition.