Saint Bernardino of Siena

Saint Bernardino, who died in 1445 and was canonised shortly after, in 1450, was the patron saint of Siena. The cult of Bernardino had spread throughout the city even before his death, and would continue to be promoted by the Franciscans thereafter, with small-scale devotional objects, such as the present panel, proliferating, showing the saint with his recognisable sunken cheeks. Pietro di Giovanni was the closest associate of Sassetta, the greatest painter of quattrocento Siena (whose name is written on a label on the reverse of the present lot), and evolved a personal style that can be seen to anticipate the Sienese artists who emerged in the 1440s. Pietro di Giovanni and his workshop produced a number of treatment of this subject, with the most well-known variant being the signed and dated (1448) panel in the Museo Civico, Lucignano, where Bernardino is shown with rays surrounding his head, rather than a halo, prior to his canonisation. The motif on the halo of the present panel matches that of Saint Augustine in Pietro di Giovanni's triptych of the Nativity in Asciano, Museo d'Arte Sacra, placing the picture precisely within the artist’s workshop.