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Even though he was in contact with the most advanced painters of his day, the artistic ideals and innovations of the Florentine Renaissance did not attract Bicci di Lorenzo. As head of a successful family workshop, Bicci carried on in the conservative late medieval style he learned from his father, Lorenzo di Bicci. The brightly colored figure of St. Blasius, framed by the geometric architecture of his throne, is typical of Bicci's work.

St. Blasius, a 4^th-century martyr, was Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia. The wool comb in his hand was one of the instruments of his martyrdom.