Sette santi

Every one of the seven men in this lunette is a name-saint of the Medici, the family that effectively ran Florence in the 15th century. Lippi lined up their patrons like a group portrait: John the Baptist for the city, Cosmas and Damian for Cosimo himself, and saints standing in for the sons and grandsons. It was made to sit high on a wall of the Palazzo Medici, probably above a door or a bed, paired with a scene of the Annunciation that now hangs in the same London room. The half-round shape may not even be original. What holds it together is the ease of it, saints leaning and turning as if caught mid-conversation rather than posed.