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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileA saint in green and red robes kneels, holding three polished golden spheres in his hand as a symbolic offering. In the foreground, a slender vase holds a collection of delicate wildflowers before the tiered base of a stone throne. The image focuses on the interplay between traditional stories of saints and the detailed observation of the physical world.
The painting emerged from the cultural milieu of the Florentine Platonic Academy, where thinkers like Marsilio Ficino sought to reconcile Christian doctrine with ancient philosophy. The artist’s detailed treatment of botanical and material textures reflects the period's shift toward empirical study, a precursor to the systematic natural philosophy of the early modern era.
Marsilio Ficino
The artist operated within the intellectual landscape of Florence defined by Ficino's Neoplatonism, which influenced the symbolic depth and naturalism of the period's art.
De rerum natura (Lucretius)
Piero di Cosimo's unique approach to depicting the natural world is frequently associated with the Lucretian vision of nature popular in Renaissance intellectual circles.
Object
italian by Bernard Comment et Fabienne Pasquet
Oil on panel
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Book Piero di Cosimo : l'œuvre peint, by Anna Forlani Tempesti et Elena Capretti, translated from italian by Bernard Comment et Fabienne Pasquet, Paris : Philippe Lebaud, 1996. ISBN 2866452232
Public domain
1867 × 2648 px
c9aed8d02b214c04e3d49214cf9f77eeb9ec7cb4
March 7, 2011
March 23, 2026
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.