This work is the upper half of an important altarpiece painted for a chapel in the cathedral of Prato, near Florence, which houses the highly venerated girdle, or belt, of the Virgin Mary. The lower section of the panel (now lost) showed Saint Thomas, whose upraised hands reaching for the Virgin's extended girdle are visible at the bottom edge, and possibly the other apostles gathered around the tomb or the deathbed of the Virgin.

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