MASTER of the Castello Nativity
(active 1445-1475 in Florence)

Sts Justus and Clement Multiplying the Grain of Volterra

c. 1450
Tempera and gold on panel, 22 x 47 cm
Museum of Art, Philadelphia

The three panels depicting Sts Justus and Clement Praying for Deliverance from the Vandals (in Philadelphia), the Nativity (in London) and Sts Justus and Clement Multiplying the Grain of Volterra (in Philadelphia) come from an altarpiece once in the small parish church of Santi Giusto e Clemente in Faltugnano in the hills north of Prato, and now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Prato. They formed the predella of the altarpiece. The two panels in Philadelphia depict the legend of Justus and Clement.

The two saints escaped the Goths in North Africa and settled in Volterra, which they helped save from the invading Vandals by having the grain remaining in the city multiplied and then thrown at the invaders, who dispersed in confusion. The saints were venerated throughout Tuscany, but by the mid-fifteenth century some doubts seem to have developed about their legend. Despite this, devotion to Justus and Clement was revived in Volterra when their relics were reinstalled in 1469.