Le Martyre de saint Flavien de Recanati

Giacomo da Recanati's Le Martyre de saint Flavien de Recanati (Martyrdom of Saint Flavian of Recanati), painted around 1450 and now in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon, depicts the death of the local Recanati bishop-saint whose enthronement is depicted in the companion panel also in the Avignon collection. Together these two panels suggest a narrative cycle dedicated to Saint Flavian — his installation as bishop and his subsequent martyrdom — that may have formed part of a retable or altarpiece dedicated to this purely local saint in a Recanati church. The survival of both panels in Avignon suggests they were acquired together, possibly as part of the same collection.

Tempera on panel. The martyrdom scene shows Flavian in the moment or aftermath of his death for the faith, rendered with the direct, earnest approach of a provincial Italian painter serving a local devotional need rather than seeking formal distinction.