Lorenzo Monaco, 'The Death of Saint Benedict: Predella Panel', 1407-9

This painting shows the death of Saint Benedict of Nursia (480–547). He founded Western monasticism and was Abbot of Monte Cassino. The elderly monk lies on a bier in his monastery cell. He has a beard and a halo. Lorenzo Monaco removed the outer wall so we can see what is happening inside.

Grieving monks cluster around Benedict. Some kneel at his head and feet; others stand with bowed heads. At his head, a tonsured monk reads from a book. Another wears a hood and holds a taper. All wear the white habits of the Camaldolese Order, a reformed Order that followed the rule of Saint Benedict. To the right, another monk who also has a halo looks up at a glowing angel dressed in ultramarine blue. This shows a vision of Benedict’s soul rising to heaven. Pope Gregory I’s Dialogues (Book II, Chapter 37) tells this story. At the moment Benedict died, two monks experienced a vision. One of the two monks was in his cell, as shown in this picture. They saw a path rise up to heaven from the saint’s cell. It was covered with rich cloths and golden mantles. Countless lamps lit the way. Monaco depicted it as a narrow greenish platform with a floral pattern on the roof.

The artist painted this small panel for the Camaldolese monastery of San Benedetto fuori Porta Pinti in Florence. Documents tell us that Luca di Piero di Raniero de Berris commissioned the work in 1407. It was probably completed by 1409 and stood on the high altar of the church. This panel was part of the lowest tier (predella) of a multi-panelled altarpiece (polyptych). The complete altarpiece probably looked like Monaco’s Coronation of the Virgin of 1413 for the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli (now Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).

The San Benedetto altarpiece is now dismantled. Its parts survive in different collections. The National Gallery has the main tier with the Coronation of the Virgin. Two panels of Adoring Angels flank it. Below them, panels in the predella tell Benedict’s story from left to right. Saint Benedict admitting Saints Maurus and Placidus into the Benedictine Order is on the far left. The Death of Saint Benedict sits on the far right. Both are in the National Gallery, London. Between them were three more panels. Next to the far-left panel came A Young Monk tempted from Prayer and Saint Benedict raises a Young Monk (Vatican Museums). The Adoration of the Magi stood in the centre (Museum Narodowe, Poznań). To its right was the Incidents in the Life of Saint Benedict (National Gallery, London).

The Incidents in the Life of Saint Benedict visually connects with the Death of Saint Benedict. The landscape runs from one panel into the other. In addition, they were painted on a single plank, then sawn in two. The triangles at the outer edges of both paintings were hidden by the original frame.

The altarpiece had a complex history after 1409. During the siege of Florence, the city demolished the monastery of San Benedetto to build fortifications. In 1530 the monks moved to Santa Maria degli Angeli with all their possessions. Giorgio Vasari, the famous biographer of artists, saw the altarpiece there in 1568. However, the predella panels had probably left by 1557. They show no signs of water damage from flooding that year, unlike the main panels.