Saints Cecilia, Tiburtius and Valerian

According to the legend of Saint Cecilia, she was a young Roman noblewoman given in marriage to a pagan named Valerian. On their wedding night she told him that an angel guarded her, and that he could see it only if he were baptised. He was, and found the angel beside her, holding two crowns of roses and lilies. His brother Tiburtius was converted in turn, and the two men died as martyrs before Cecilia herself.

The triptych comes from the church of Santa Cecilia in Verona and gives the three of them a panel each, Cecilia in red at the centre between the two young brothers. The museum sees it as an original attempt to take in the new language of the Renaissance, the floor drawn in perspective and the marble parapets set with classical medallions, while the painting itself stays in a linear tradition that is still essentially Gothic.