8. Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes (detail)

To the far right, before the large canopy that arches over in the space above the blasphemous throne of Chosroes, the final episode of the cycle unfolds, with the sentencing to death of the Persian king. The defeated king, wearing his crown, is kneeling, old, white-haired, wrapped in a mantle that restoration has revealed to bee of very bright blue colour. Next to him stand Emperor Heraclius, who grasps the staff of command as he condemns him, and a series of Piero’s contemporaries believed to be portraits of the Bacci family, who commissioned the artist to do the paintings in the chapel