[…] The subject illustrated is one of the moment that sign the centuries-old history of the glorious Maritime Republic of Genoa, when in town entered the ashes of Saint John the Baptist, one of the city saint patron. At the time of the First Crusade (1098) belongs the finding of the sacred ashes of the Baptist in Asia, in the town of Mira. Their translation to the cathedral of Saint Lawrence, in a chapel of the XV century where they still are, happened in a solemn way. In the museum of the treasure of the church, in the crypt, is preserved the famous Ark of the Baptist-commissioned by the priors of the chapels and made by Teramo Danieli between the 1438 and the 1445 to carry the holy relics in procession-that here we find simplified but clearly evoked, at the centre of the composition.

Excerpt  of the expertise by doc. Anna Orlando