Saint Vincent Ferrer

When Francesco del Cossa painted this in Bologna, probably in the mid-1470s, Vincent Ferrer had been a saint for only about 20 years. He was a Spanish Dominican friar, canonised in 1455, who had crossed western Europe preaching that the Last Judgement was near, and some of his followers whipped themselves as they walked behind him. Cossa shows him in mid-sermon, one finger raised, an open book in the other. Above his head is the judge he warned about. Christ sits in an almond-shaped glory showing his wounds, while angels carry the cross, the column and the rest of the instruments of the Passion, standing on clouds as solid as carved stone. The panel was the centre of an altarpiece for the Griffoni family chapel in San Petronio. In 2020 it went back to Bologna, shown with the surviving panels for the first time since the altarpiece was broken up in 1725.