Saint Albert the Great

Tommaso da Modena was commissioned to paint a fresco cycle in the Chapter House of San Niccolò in Treviso representing the famous saints of the Dominicans. The cycle contains 40 monks, each in his own cell, sitting at a writing desk. The picture shows one of them, St Albert the Great, the master of Thomas of Aquinas.

This series of famous members of the Dominican order constitutes one of the most impressive examples of physiognomic realism from this period.