Saints Francis and Mark

Antonio Vivarini's Saints Francis and Mark, painted around 1443 for the National Gallery, pairs the Franciscan founder with the patron saint of Venice. The pairing reflects the particular devotional landscape of the Veneto, where civic patronage and Franciscan spirituality intersected Altarpieces featuring rows of standing saints served both liturgical and devotional functions, identifying the church's patron saints and giving worshippers specific objects for personal prayer.

The two saints stand with their identifying attributes in a balanced composition, rendered in Antonio Vivarini's characteristic vivid color and decorative gold ground that exemplify the mid-fifteenth-century Venetian school.