Saint Nemesius and Saint John the Baptist Above: Prophet IsaiahBelow: The Beheading of Saint Nemesius, The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Male Saint Spinello Aretino

As monumental as it may seem, this painting is only a fragment: originally it was the left-hand panel of an enormous altarpiece. Saint Nemesius, a Roman soldier executed for his Christian faith, and Saint John the Baptist are depicted in the main fields. The Assumption of the Virgin once appeared in the now lost central field, and two further saints, Benedict and Nemesius’ daughter, Lucilla, stood on the right (Cambridge, MA, Fogg Art Museum). The subject of the pedestal (predella) is the martyrdom of the saints portrayed in the main fields. Here the artist experimented with more complex ways of conveying spatiality, in contrast to the shallow space characterising the main panels.

Spinello Aretino was active in his native Arezzo and other Tuscan cities (Lucca, Florence, Pisa, Siena). This altarpiece was painted in Lucca for the Olivetan church of Santa Maria Nuova in Rome, which held the relics of Saints Nemesius and Lucilla. However, it may have never been installed in Rome, as from the mid-sixteenth century on sources recorded it on the high altar of the church of the Abbey of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, the mother house of the Olivetan order.

Quite exceptionally, besides the painter’s name, also those of the carpenter and the master gilder were once recorded beneath the three main panels.