Saints Simon and Thaddeus

This panel by Ugolino di Nerio, was once part of a multi-panelled altarpiece made for the Florentine church of Santa Croce. It would have appeared in the third tier of the structure, above an image of Saint Francis and beneath a pinnacle panel (now both lost).This tier consisted of six identically shaped panels each depicting two different apostles. Saints Peter and Paul were excluded, as they appeared in the position of honour on either side of the Virgin Mary, and were replaced by two female saints: Saints Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Clare. Both belonged to the Franciscan Order. We hold one more panel from this layer, showing Saints Bartholomew and Andrew.An inscription, now quite faded and damaged, identifies the saint wearing violet drapery: S.THA. (Saint Thaddeus). You can just see it to the left of his halo. Nothing remains of the inscription that named the other saint, but it is likely to be Simon – the only apostle not identifiable elsewhere. The saints‘ draperies are quite damaged.Heads appear in the decorative shapes (quatrefoils) that run beneath the apostles; they are so individual they might be portraits. We see two bearded older men wearing black and one younger man, beardless and quite plump. We don’t know their identities, but they might be friars from the Franciscan Order who lived at Santa Croce.The portraits are interspersed with more abstract images of animals – a bird to the left and some kind of imaginary two-legged monster on the right – contained in circles bound in a square. The artist has painted these decorative border elements with great care. The decoration within the trefoil (three-lobed shape) between the two arches at the top was once painted with silver leaf that has now degraded. There is also evidence that the sgraffito technique was used.