Le Dernier Miracle et la mort de saint Zénobe

By 1500 Botticelli was an old man painting in a changed Florence. The Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola, who had thundered against worldly art and had the city burning its luxuries, was himself burned in the main square in 1498, and Botticelli's late work turned plain, grave and deeply religious. This panel is one of four telling the life of Zenobius, an early bishop of Florence from around the year 400, revered as a protector of the city. Here he has just died: his body lies on a red-draped bier while mourners raise their hands around him, the buildings behind them stripped almost bare. The four panels were probably set into the wooden panelling of a Florentine room, and are now split between Dresden and London.