The Prophet Elisha
by VASARI, Giorgio, Oil on wood, 40 x 29 cm
This composition is a typical example of a painting for private worship, a genre that was popular with Vasari. The subject is a scene from the life of the Prophet Elisha, who during famine saved his people making edible wild herbs. Elisha is one of the biblical prophets whose miracles prefigured those of Christ. A man in the middle ground carries a basket, because Elisha miraculously multiplied the available food.
In spite of the modest size of the work, the artist insists on elaborating a composition of great complexity and refinement, characteristics which would reappear in the profane paintings of the Studiolo executed thirty years later.