St John the Evangelist Resuscitating Drusiana

The scene depicting St John the Evangelist Resuscitating Drusiana is on the left wall of the chapel. This miracle is described in the Golden Legend. It was wrought by the evangelist John in Ephesus, to which he retired after having been tortured by Emperor Domitian and banished to Patmos, where he wrote the book of Revelation. The event takes place in the foreground, there are groupings of onlookers left and right. The background is like a theatre backdrop, a cityscape filled with towers, gates, and church façades that are more evocative of central Italy than classical antiquity. Lippi patterned this composition after Giotto's depiction of the same event in the Peruzzi Chapel in Santa Croce. Some of the details are borrowed from Donatello's tondo in the Old Sacristy at San Lorenzo.