Panel from an Altarpiece
Saint Otho [this side], Saint Bonaventure [other side]
Panel from an altarpiece; companion to a panel in the Philadelphia Museum of Art (EW1993-127-3a,b)
Pau Várgos, Spanish (Barcelona), died 1495
This two-sided panel comes from a large altarpiece depicting saints of the Franciscan order. The altarpiece was probably made for a church in the Spanish province of Catalonia.
Saint Otho was one of the first Franciscan martyrs. In 1219 he was executed in Morocco for preaching the Christian religion in the main mosque of Marrakech.
Saint Bonaventure holds the symbol of the Tree of Life, to represent the title of the book he wrote about Christ in the mid-1200s. The branches of the tree hold the chapter headings from the book.