Saint Zenobius revives a Dead Boy

The bell tower and the end of the church behind this crowd belong to San Pier Maggiore in Florence, a church pulled down in 1784. The setting is part of the story. According to a 15th-century life of Zenobius, the city's early bishop, a mother going on pilgrimage to Rome left her small son in his care. During a procession at San Pier Maggiore the boy was run over by a cart, and she laid his body at the saint's feet. Bilivert painted the scene probably in the 1610s and dressed it in his own time. Zenobius and his deacons wear the heavy vestments of contemporary clergy, embroidered with small figures of saints. On the clasp that holds his cope together sits the coat of arms of the Girolami, the Florentine family the picture was painted for.