The Virgin and Child with Ten Saints

In the 1360s Andrea di Bonaiuto was working at Santa Maria Novella, the great Dominican church of Florence and his own parish. This long, low panel, only 28 centimetres high, turns out to be a kind of map of it. Recent research found that every saint here had a chapel at the east end of that church in the 14th century, and they stand in the same order as those chapels on either side of the high altar. Three Dominican friars appear in black cloaks, among them Thomas Aquinas, a small building lit by rays from his palm. Mark, Luke and John come with their animals, but Matthew is missing, because there was no chapel for him. At the far end stands Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury killed in 1170. The frame is original, with glass beads set between the arches like gems.