The Vision of Saint Dominic of Christ with the Three Lances

The Belvedere catalogues this panel as the work of a Viennese painter in the circle of the Master of the Schotten Altarpiece, around 1480. The story comes from the Golden Legend, which credits it to a Franciscan friar, a long-time companion of Francis of Assisi. Christ sits in a starry, gold-edged mandorla above a wide landscape, the lances raised in his hand and his feet on a dark globe. Below, the Virgin reaches towards Dominic in his black and white habit, and a second haloed friar in brown stands behind him, the man the legend identifies as Francis. Opposite, a crowd prays, led by a bearded old man in a turban and brocade robe. The same text says that the next morning Dominic found the stranger from his vision in a church, knew him at once, and greeted him with a kiss.