This panel shows the Dominican Blessed, both tertiaries (those who lived in general society rather than a convent, but were allied to the Dominican Order) and friars. They're dressed in their distinctive black and white habits, neatly lined up in rows.
The Blessed were holy figures belonging to the Order (called the Dominicans because they were founded by Saint Dominic) who were venerated locally after their death. Some, like Catherine of Siena, shown here kneeling at the head of the front row, were eventually recognised as saints.
This panel framed the predella (the lowest part) of the altarpiece, made for San Domenico in Fiesole, a town outside of Florence. The predella showed Christ surrounded by angels and saints; its panels, and the pair to this panel, are also in the National Gallery.
This panel, along with its pair, framed the predella of an altarpiece made for the church of San Domenico, Fiesole, near Florence. Visually they were a continuation of the predella but they were actually painted on the bases of the pilaster panels (tall piers that enclosed the entire construction). The grain of the wood they‘re painted on tells us this: it’s vertical, like the pilasters.
This panel follows the pattern of the predella panels by arranging the figures in three rows, with the women kneeling on the bottom row. The figures were important members of the Dominican community, known as the ’Beati‘ (’Blessed‘). These were the Dominican friars and nuns who were venerated for having lived particularly holy lives, and some would eventually become saints. For now, though, they do not have haloes like saints; golden rays shine around their heads instead.
This panel appears at the right of the predella, which has Christ at its centre – so, to Christ’s left, a less honourable position than his right. This is because the panel included not only nuns and monks who had taken vows and lived within the Dominican community, away from the non-religious world, but also tertiaries (on the front row). Tertiaries made a promise to the Dominican Order but had fewer responsibilities and could live outside the convent. Their habits (or uniform) are slightly different.
The men in this panel are mostly elderly with white hair. They all have tonsures – partially shaved heads, a sign of devotion – and wear the black and white habit of the Dominicans. Neat inscriptions on their tunics – a ’b' for Beatus followed by their name – identify them, but they also carry objects that tell us who they are. One, in the centre of the middle row, carries a miniature church on the palm of his hand. He has been identified as John of Salerno (d.1242) who founded the Dominican Order in Florence and was an important figure for the church in Fiesole, a town not far from Florence.
In the opposite panel, one man is shown inscribing Jesus’s name on his chest; mirroring him here is a man labelled as Jacob who holds his heart in his hand – he points to the opening in his tunic where the wound is still fresh. The heart is inscribed with Jesus’s name in gold lettering. The Blessed Peter on the second right in the top row has the same letters inscribed in gold in his mouth.
Unlike the panel opposite there is a sense of movement in this picture, partly due the gestures the tertiaries on the bottom row make. Catherine of Siena, who was canonised (made a saint) in 1461, is at the front, her name inscribed along her raised arm. The two tertiaries behind, like her, raise their hands towards the central scene of Christ resurrected. Behind them are the only two figures in the panel without rays around their heads, dressed in the habit of male Dominican tertiaries. They might be Jacopo and Domenico degli Agli, the sons of Barnaba degli Agli, who paid for the altarpiece.
