Pentecost

Pentecost by the Master of the Baroncelli Portraits depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and Mary gathered in the upper room, tongues of fire appearing above each head — the founding moment of the Christian church. This subject, the culmination of the liturgical year between Easter and Pentecost Sunday, was a standard element of Passion and Resurrection altarpiece cycles. The anonymous master, identified with portraits connected to the Baroncelli family in Florence, worked in a style combining Florentine and Flemish elements. Pentecost's crowd of apostles offered the painter an opportunity to demonstrate range of expression and pose.

The gathered disciples are arranged in a semicircle or grouped symmetrically, the Virgin typically at center, with the dove of the Spirit above and tongues of flame descending on each figure. The master renders varied facial responses — wonder, awe, absorbed prayer — with Flemish attention to individual expression.