St Cosmas and St Damian with Their Brothers before the Proconsul Lysias,

um 1438/40

Material / Technology / Carrier

Pappelholz

Dimensions of the object

37,7 x 46,5 cm

Displayed

Not on display

Department

Italian Painting

Genre

Painting

Inventory number

WAF 36

Acquisition

1822 für die Sammlung des Kronprinzen Ludwig erworben – seit 1923 Wittelsbacher Ausgleichsfonds

Stock

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München

Citation

Fra Angelico, Anhörung der hll. Cosmas und Damian und ihrer Brüder vor Prokonsul Lysias, um 1438/40, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München, URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/artwork/rqxNXZ3GvW (Last updated on 10.06.2025)

These panels (see inv. no. WAF 37, WAF 38 and WAF 38) belong to a total of nine pictures that make up the predella of the high altar in San Marco, the first major altar commissioned by the Medici in Florence. While the principal panel shows the Madonna surrounded by saints (Florence, Museo di San Marco), the scenes on the predella relate the rarely depicted legend of the saints Cosmas and Damian—divided by the Entombment of Christ in the middle. Fra Angelico, who rose to become the leading Early Renaissance painter in Florence, captures these episodes in an elaborateness previously unknown. Saints Cosmas and Damian were the namesakes of the benefactor, Cosimo de’ Medici, and his twin brother, Damiano, who died young.