Bicci di Lorenzo, St. Nicholas Resuscitating Three Youths

1433-35
Tempera and gold on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 16.121, Gift of Francis Kleinberger

The painting illustrates one version of the legend of St. Nicholas resurrecting three youngsters. In this version, the three on the left are the young men who were murdered by an innkeeper on the right. One would think that the couple kneeling behind Nicholas would be parents of the unfortunate young men, but I have not yet encountered a version of the story that involves parents. Could they be the donors?

One of the Metropolitan's two predella panels executed for the monastery of San Niccolo in Cafaggio, Florence, designed after an altarpiece by Gentile da Fabriano of 1425. The other panel is St. Nicholas Providing Dowries.

Read more about images of St. Nicholas.

Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.