The Stigmatization of Saint Francis and a Miracle of Saint Nicholas

In 1423 and 1424 two men of the Ardinghelli family paid Giovanni Toscani to decorate their chapel in the Florentine church of Santa Trinita. The chapel was dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Bari, and Toscani frescoed his stories on the walls and painted the altarpiece as well. This small panel was the left end of its base. On the rocks of La Verna, Francis kneels as Christ, in the form of a seraph, gives him the wounds. Beyond a dark gorge, a ship is close to being wrecked off the coast. The sailors strain at the ropes on the mast, and Nicholas appears out of the sky and lays his hand on the bellying sail. The altarpiece was later broken up, and three of its upper panels, a Crucifixion and the two figures of an Annunciation, hang here in the Accademia too.