Abstract

The essay investigates six painted panels dated in 1367 by Nicoletto Semitecolo, and parts of a dismembered altarpiece with Stories of St. Sebastian, Our Lady of Humility and the Thronus gratiae, now in the Diocesan Museum, but formerly in the Cathedral of Padua. Since some of them were also painted on the back with figures upside-down representing an Imago pietatis in the centre and the half-length figures of St. Sebastian and St. Daniel on the sides, the panels were conceived as the double-hinged folding panels of a reliquary altarpiece, whose function was to expose the relics of the holy martyrs for veneration. This paper therefore intends to highlight the true function and the possible place of this important work in Semitecolo’s career within the cathedral.