Saint Jerome, wearing his red cardinal’s hat, and Saint John the Baptist stand side by side on a grassy hillock. Saint John’s sturdy toes interrupt a carpet of wild flowers, including yellow dandelions, violets and strawberries. A lion sits at Saint Jerome’s feet – according to his legend, when living as a monk near Bethlehem Jerome pulled a thorn from a lion’s foot; it then became his companion. John the Baptist is shown in the camel-hair tunic that he wore when he was in the wilderness, preaching and baptising people in the river Jordan. His preached about Christ and his significance, and so he carries a cross and a scroll with the words he spoke about Christ: ‘Behold! The Lamb of God.’ The panel comes from a large double-sided altarpiece that Masolino and Masaccio collaborated on for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore.