Saint Florian

Francesco del Cossa, 1472

Saint Florian is a tempera and gold panel by Francesco del Cossa, painted around 1472 as the upper left panel of the Griffoni Polyptych, an altarpiece commissioned by the Griffoni family for a chapel in the basilica of San Petronio in Bologna, which Cossa shared with the Ferrara painter Ercole de' Roberti. The altarpiece honoured Saint Vincent Ferrer, canonized in 1448 and promoted by the Dominicans. Florian stands with a sword and one foot resting on a low stone parapet. His gold background differs from the sky and figures of the lower panels, which led scholars to question whether it belonged to the group, though it fits opposite Saint Lucy. The red rose in his hand and the cord around his neck refer to his martyrdom, drowning with a millstone tied to him. Under the influence of Piero della Francesca, Cossa gives him a solemn, regal bearing, with careful attention to anatomy and to the soft gestures and hands.

Painter: Francesco del Cossa
Date: 1472
Medium: oil paint, panel
Dimensions: 79 × 55 cm
Museum: Samuel H. Kress Collection
Genre: religious art
Depicts: Saint Florian

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More works by Francesco del Cossa

**Madonna enthroned with child and Saints Petronius and John the Evangelist**1474Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

**Allegory of April: Triumph of Venus**1468Palazzo Schifanoia

**St John the Baptist**1470Pinacoteca di Brera

**Saint Vincent Ferrer**1472National Gallery

**Saint Lucy**1472Samuel H. Kress Collection

**Virgin and Child with an Angel**1460Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

**The Annunciation**1471Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

**The Crucifixion**1473Samuel H. Kress Collection

**Nativity**1471Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden