Saint Elisabeth of Hungary

Pietro Nelli, a Florentine painter active in the third quarter of the fourteenth century and a follower of the Orcagna brothers, produced this image of Saint Elisabeth of Hungary around 1365. Elisabeth, a thirteenth-century princess who renounced her royal privileges to serve the poor, was widely venerated throughout Gothic Europe as an exemplar of Christian charity. The panel's presence in the Dienst Verspreide Rijkscollecties (Netherlands state collection) testifies to the international dispersal of Italian Gothic devotional paintings.

Tempera on gold-ground panel depicting the saint in half or full-length with her traditional attributes. Nelli's style follows the Orcagnesque tradition of firm contour drawing and solid figure modeling, with carefully tooled haloes and decorative gold details.