In 1937 F.D.Lycett Green bought a picture from an art dealer in London to hang in his home in Kent.

An early Renaissance painting of St. Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence, the picture was one of 135 Old Master paintings that Lycett Green donated to York Art Gallery in 1955. Dating from c.1345, this picture is the very oldest in York’s collection, and a rare example of the work of one of the Renaissance’s most important artists – Bernardo Daddi.

Bernardo Daddi was born at the beginning of the 14th century, and began his career at a time when Giotto was the star of Florentine painting, celebrated for his ultra-naturalistic figures and revolutionary break with the flat, unrealistic paintings of the past.

Given Giotto’s levels of fame and fortune, Daddi realised that in order to win commissions and make a name for himself he had to offer something different. He had to have a USP. And so, in contrast to Giotto’s relatively sober style, Daddi decided to specialise in small-scale, devotional panels that demonstrated his exquisite craftsmanship.

He gilded his paintings with the finest gold leaf, mastering gold tooling techniques and using tiny hole punches, needles and nibs to achieve astonishing glittering, shimmering visual effects.

His paintings would have sparkled from a distance, reflecting the flickering church candlelight and giving the appearance of glistening ripples across the surface.

His figures were clothed in sumptuous fabrics inspired by the exotic silks and damasks pouring into Italy from the East. He developed stencils to mimic intricate patterns in gold and silver thread, and adorned drapery with luxurious borders and opulent clasps and embellishments.

He even employed a signature decorative motif; something instantly recognisable to distinguish his work from the rest: a dragon. He wove images of dragons into clothing, festooned hats with silver dragons and even created a tiny dragon-shaped metal punch so that his motif could be embossed into the magnificent borders and richly ornamented haloes of his paintings.

Daddi’s methods achieved spectacular success, and he began to employ assistants to satisfy the enormous demand for his work. By the 1330s was running a huge workshop of artists all using his designs, techniques and compositions.

Following Giotto’s death in 1338, Daddi became the leading painter in Florence. He died of plague when the Black Death swept through Italy in 1348, but his approach to painting continued to dominate Florentine painting for the remainder of the century.

The influence of his style can be traced through assistants such as Puccio di Simone, whose work also features in the Lycett Green collection.

This painting was part of a ‘polyptych’ altarpiece – a painting made up of several pieces to decorate the altar of a church or chapel – and was originally thought to have been by one of Daddi’s many assistants.

In 1990, however, the panel was matched to four other paintings by Daddi in collections around the world, showing St. John the Evangelist, St. James Major, the Virgin and Child, and St. John the Baptist.

This five-section polyptych was probably made to decorate the church of San Giovanni Maggiore in Panicaglia, near Florence, where the piece depicting St. John the Baptist can still be seen today.