Saint Mamas in Prison thrown to the Lions: Predella Panel

A young saint is shut in a cell with four lions. He is Mamas, a Christian of Caesarea in what is now Turkey, put to death under the Roman emperor Aurelian. In his legend he is imprisoned first and thrown to the lions later, and the painter has put both episodes into one room.

Mamas hardly ever appears in Tuscan painting. He is here because of Pero ser Landi, treasurer of the Pistoia confraternity that ordered the altarpiece, who was devoted to him. When the saints were being chosen in 1455, Landi asked for Mamas and promised the confraternity six measures of grain every year in return. Some versions of the story say Mamas later tamed a lion, which stayed with him as a companion.