1467
Saint Thomas Receiving the Virgin's Belt with Saints Michael Archangel, Augustine, Margaret of Antioch, and Catherine of Alexandria
Neri di BicciItalian (active Florence), 1419 - January 4, 1493
The apostle Thomas, who is often called Doubting Thomas because he refused to believe in the Resurrection of Christ until he had touched Christ's wounds, also doubted the Virgin's Assumption. This panel shows the Virgin Mary lowering her belt to Thomas from Heaven to convince him that she has been lifted there after her death.
The panel comes from an altarpiece commissioned by the abbess of the convent of San Michele in Prato, near Florence. She chose this story because a relic thought to be the Virgin's belt was preserved in the principal church of Prato.
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