Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John and Saint Peter Martyr

The Virgin and Child with the Infant Saint John and Saint Peter Martyr by the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany, painted around 1485 and now in the Courtauld Gallery, belongs to the tradition of Florentine devotional panel painting in which Dominican iconography — specifically the presence of Peter Martyr, the thirteenth-century Dominican friar and inquisitor murdered by heretics — indicates a commission for or by the Dominican order. Peter Martyr (Pietro da Verona) was one of the most important Dominican saints, canonized in record time after his murder in 1252, and his presence in a devotional panel typically indicates a Dominican context for the commission. The Master of the Fiesole Epiphany, an anonymous Florentine painter named for an Epiphany panel in Fiesole, worked in the tradition of the Ghirlandaio circle and produced polished devotional images for the Florentine ecclesiastical market.

The master organizes the devotional group in the Florentine tradition of the sacra conversazione, the Virgin and Child attended by the infant Baptist and the Dominican saint Peter Martyr in a compact, harmonious composition. The clear Florentine draftsmanship, smooth tempera or early oil surface, and bright palette of the Ghirlandaio tradition are evident throughout.