Attributed to Jacopo di Cione and datable to the late 14th century, this precious panel painting features Saint Zenobius at the center, with the portrait of a praying female donor, and, in the upper cusp, the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary, depicted on either side of the apex.
The painting’s provenance is unknown, but its iconography suggests that it may have come from the ancient chapel in the Cathedral dedicated to Saint Zenobius, or from the seat of the confraternity bearing his name, formerly housed in the Canonica of Santa Reparata.
Saint Zenobius is shown standing on a green dais, against a gold background, frontal and hieratic in gaze and posture, dressed in bishop’s vestments: a red cope embroidered with gold, a mitre, and liturgical gloves. He holds a crosier in his right hand and a preciously bound Gospel book in his left. At his feet, to the viewer’s left, is the devout donor, depicted in smaller scale, in profile, in prayer and wrapped entirely in a dark mantle indicating her widowed status.
In the cusp, on either side of the apex, is the moment of the Incarnation: to the left, the Archangel Gabriel, holding lilies symbolizing the Virgin’s purity; to the right, Mary, seated before an open book inscribed with the words "Ecce ancilla Domini!" (“"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord”), her response as recorded in the Gospel of Luke (1:38) when she accepts the angel’s message and consents to the Incarnation. From above, the Holy Spirit is already descending upon her in the form of a dove.
Zenobius—first bishop of Florence and patron saint of the Florentine Church, who lived between the 4th and 5th centuries—is here presented as an intercessor, as suggested by his central position between the praying donor below and the Annunciation above. He thus acts as a mediator of the woman’s prayers to the Virgin, and from her, through Christ, to God, whose hand is visible at the top of the panel, in the act of sending the Spirit.