Pistoia Santa Trinità Altarpiece

Francesco di Pesello (known as Pesellino) painted the Pistoia Santa Trinità Altarpiece around 1457, one of his most important surviving works. Pesellino was a Florentine painter who died young in 1457, and this altarpiece was among the last commissions he undertook. The work was completed after his death by Fra Filippo Lippi's workshop, reflecting the collaborative nature of Florentine artistic production. Pesellino was admired by his contemporaries for his narrative skill and decorative refinement, qualities he developed through training in the workshop of his grandfather Giuliano Pesello and exposure to Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi.

The altarpiece combines Pesellino's characteristic delicacy of touch with the monumental compositional structure expected of a major church commission. The predella panels, where Pesellino particularly excelled, demonstrate his gift for lively narrative and his command of the small-scale format that earned him comparison to manuscript illuminators.