The Vision of St Sorore (detail)

Vecchietta’s earliest surviving documented work is the Allegory of the Blessed Sorore and the Education of the Foundlings (1441) in the Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala, Siena; it is the only fresco to be preserved of four he painted there, and the first of several major commissions for the hospital. It contrasts with the neighbouring frescoes by Domenico di Bartolo in its orderly and rational approach to the architectural setting (in which a Roman triumphal arch is set in front of an aisled nave) and in its subtly graded coloration.