Martyrdom of Tebans

Bruno di Giovanni painted this Martyrdom of the Thebans around 1310 for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, depicting the legendary massacre of the Theban Legion, Christian soldiers executed by the Roman emperor Maximian for refusing to sacrifice to pagan gods. The subject had particular resonance for the mendicant orders who championed stories of faith tested by persecution. The painting remains in situ, a rare survival of early Trecento narrative painting in its original church context.

Executed in tempera on panel, the martyrdom scene employs the episodic narrative format common to Gothic Italian painting, with multiple figures arranged across a compressed pictorial space. The style shows the transition from the Byzantine-influenced Duecento manner toward the more naturalistic Giottesque idiom emerging in early 14th-century Florence.