San Paolo in trono

Around 1515 a young Sienese painter came home from Rome, where Michelangelo had just uncovered the Sistine ceiling, and you can feel that shock in this panel. Beccafumi seats Saint Paul like one of those brooding prophets, heavy and muscular, a sword laid across his knees. The commission came from the guild that ran Siena's merchant court, for the church of San Paolo, which no longer stands. To either side, painted small, the saint's own story frames him: his conversion, thrown from his horse on the road to Damascus, and at the far edge his martyrdom by the sword.