An Episode from the Life of Saint Giovanni Gualberto

Giovanni Gualberto, the founder of the Vallombrosan branch of the Benedictine order, stands before a crucifix with his brother’s murderer kneeling beside him. Instead of avenging his brother’s death, the saint forgave the murderer, and the image of the crucified Christ is said to have nodded in approval of this act of charity. The picture was probably painted for a Vallombrosan church, but its composition seems to derive from a scene by Giovanni del Biondo in an altarpiece in Santa Croce, Florence. It dates from the last years of the fourteenth century.