In 1451, the painter Giovanni da Modena completed a large painted canvas featuring St. Bernardino of Siena surrounded by nine small scenes set in illusionistic niches (Fig. 4).1 Bernardino, who had been canonized just the previous year, holds a staff topped with his IHS trigram and wears the signature gray habit and zoccoli (wood-soled sandals) of the Observant Franciscans.2 Eight of the scenes depict Bernardino performing miracles, both in vita and posthumously; the ninth scene, at the bottom left, presents the so-called three crowns – three white miters representing the three bishoprics refused by the saint.3 Although the patron and original function of the painting are debated, it seems most likely that it was commissioned by the Franciscans of Bologna and displayed in an accessible part of their home church of San Francesco, probably on the now-lost tramezzo (rood screen).4