L'imposition du nom à saint Jean-Baptiste

Fra Angelico was a Dominican friar, and painting was a form of his devotion. This little scene once ran along the base of a larger altarpiece, one of a row of small storytelling panels called a predella, later sawn apart and dispersed. It shows a moment from Luke's gospel. The old priest Zacharias has been struck dumb for doubting that his elderly wife would bear a son, and now, at the child's naming, the neighbours ask what he will be called. Unable to speak, Zacharias writes it on a tablet: his name is John. Angelico stages it plainly, in clear light and a few calm figures, the lessons of Masaccio's nearby Florentine frescoes visible in how solidly the people stand. The panel is kept today in the convent of San Marco, where Angelico later painted his famous cells.