Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius

Description

Sandro Botticelli’s Three Miracles of Saint Zenobius, painted around 1500 in tempera on wood, unfolds several events across a single city setting. Groups of figures gather from left to right along a paved pink street, with a classical building and red architecture organizing the space. The repeated saint’s appearances make movement through the town part of the narrative, joining separate miracles within one elongated view.

At the left, Zenobius meets a funeral procession and revives a youth; the central miracle concerns a man killed while carrying relics. Another episode involves blessed water and salt used to restore a dead relative. These events belong to a larger series about the fifth-century bishop of Florence. Botticelli gives the sacred history a tense pictorial rhythm, with repeated appearances and active gestures directing attention across the panel. The city becomes the framework through which the miracles acquire continuity.

Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Sandro Botticelli collection.