''Seven Saints'' is a tempera on panel painting by the Italian Renaissance master

Filippo Lippi Filippo Lippi ( – 8 October 1469), also known as Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century) and a Carmelite Priest. Biography Lippi was born in Florence in 1406 to Tommaso, a butcher, and his wife. He was orp ...

, dating to , in the collection of the National Gallery, London. It is a pendant to Lippi's ''

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

'', also in the National Gallery. The

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

s were commissioned as part of the decoration of the Palazzo Medici in Florence, where they were likely placed above a door or a bed. There is general agreement on Lippi's authorship of the panels, but their dating is less certain; they were produced some time between Lorenzo the Magnificent's birth in 1449 and the completion of the palace's furnishing in 1459. That their patron belonged to the Medici family is testified by the presence of

Piero di Cosimo de' Medici Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (the Gouty), (Italian: ''Piero "il Gottoso"'') (1416 – 2 December 1469) was the ''de facto'' ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance. Biography Piero was the son of Cosimo de' Medi ...

's coat of arms in the other lunette, and by the link between the saints depicted in this panel and the male members of the family. Piero di Cosimo lived in Palazzo Medici from 1456. In the center is Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, flanked by the

Saints Cosmas and Damian Cosmas and Damian ( ar, قُزما ودميان, translit=Qozma wa Demyaan; grc-gre, Κοσμᾶς καὶ Δαμιανός, translit=Kosmás kai Damianós; la, Cosmas et Damianus; AD) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrrhus, and were r ...

(protectors of the Medici, and in particular of

Cosimo de' Medici Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici (27 September 1389 – 1 August 1464) was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth ...

, Piero's father). On the right, in the foreground, is Saint Peter of Verona, protector of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici, and next to him is Saint John the Evangelist, protector of his brother Giovanni. On the left, in the foreground, are Saint

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

, the patron of Pierfrancesco the Elder (Piero's cousin), and Saint Lawrence, patron of his uncle, Lorenzo the Elder. Both lunettes were acquired in 1855 from the Metzger brothers by Sir Charles Eastlake and donated to the National Gallery in 1861.

References

1450s paintings Paintings by Filippo Lippi House of Medici Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings depicting John the Baptist Paintings of Francis of Assisi Paintings of Peter of Verona {{15C-painting-stub