Coronation of the Virgin; St. Matthias; St. Matthew

The polyptych painted by Pietro di Miniato for the Augustinian monastery of San Matteo (dissolved in 1786) is the first certain work by this little Florentine master, who trained with Orcagna and worked for a long period in Prato with his brother Antonio, painting mostly frescoes (on the ground floor of Palazzo Pretorio the fresco with an interesting view of Prato was done by the brothers in c.1415). The upper sections, considerably damaged (the two right sections showing St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter are lost) show references to Niccolò Gerini and the Orcagna school, as well as more modern late Gothic influences in the elongation of the figures and the draperies. The artist has taken the maximum of care in this work, which was probably his first important commission, showing all his skill in the double predella (a typical feature of Prato polyptyches). In the first predella, the small, dramatically-effective scenes are carefully constructed and rich in curious details, such as the eastern-style costumes or the dromedaries in the Adoration of the Magi. The second predella is inspired by the stories of St. Matthew frescoed in the early 15th century by Niccolò Gerini in Prato in the Migliorati chapel in San Francesco.

In the same section From late Gothic to the Renaissance there are also the polyptyches by Giovanni da Milano, Lorenzo Monaco e Andrea di Giusto.