A bearded saint is being raised to heaven by Christ, who leans out of a cloud to grasp him by the wrists. This is Saint John the Evangelist, usually shown as a young man, but here old, balding and bearded.

This is the centre panel of a large polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) made for the high altar of the church of the Camaldolese nunnery of San Giovanni Evangelista in Pratovecchio in Tuscany. Other panels from the altarpiece are also in the National Gallery’s collection.

The artist, Giovanni dal Ponte, took the story’s details from the Golden Legend, the great medieval collection of saints' lives, and from an earlier painting by Giotto in Santa Croce in Florence. He adapted Giotto’s composition to fit the upright shape of the panel better: Saint John is hauled up vertically rather than sliding diagonally.