In summer 1463 the Greek Cardinal Bessarion (1408–1472), a humanist from Constantinople, decided to donate the Staurotheca – a precious cross-shaped reliquary containing fragments of the True Cross and of Christ's seamless coat – to the Scuola Grande della Carità, one of the most important confraternities in Venice, connected with the church of Santa Maria della Carità. Bessarion had himself become a member of the Scuola on 29 August of the same year. On 6 July 1472 the guardian grande then in office, Andrea dalla Siega, addressed a letter to thecardinal, describing the solemn public procession that had taken place on Trinity Sunday to welcome the arrival of the munificent gift, which was first exhibited in the Basilica of St. Mark and subsequently transferred to the oratory of the Scuola, where an altar had been specifically installed for its recovery. Shortly afterwards, in November 1472, Bessarion died in Ravenna. A solemn ossequio was celebrated on 6 December, in the church of Santa Maria della Carità, ‘a perpetua memoria’ of the deceased cardinal. In the explicit, Bessarion's soul is invoked, almost ‘portrayed’ while praying for God to watch over all the brethren. This passage immediately recalls the image depicted on a small panel attributed to Gentile Bellini, now held at the National Gallery in London, in which Bessarion appears in profile, alongside two confratelli, kneeling in adoration of the reliquary.