The sincere devotion emanating from the image in this excellently-conserved painting, as well as its refined style, allow us to identify the artist as Carlo Dolci. His talent for naturalism is evident in the realism of the hands, the red velvet book cover, the folds of the drapery, the slightly parted full lips, and finally in every single lock of the beard and hair.

From a dark room, St Benedict emerges in a warm light: Dolci uses this effect to create a highly-detailed, almost miniaturistic painting of exceptional realism, intended for meditation and concentration in prayer. In fact, Dolci was commissioned to do this type of painting by brothers of the company of San Benedetto Bianco or people with close ties to it. The simplicity of the image, consisting of the single figure against the dark background, must have certainly been expedient for moments of quiet contemplation. The saint seems to be in the act of praying, which would have induced the faithful to meditate and listen to the word of God in ascetic silence.

The bundle of rods he holds in his hand along with the book were used to remind the monks about the concept of strength. In the painting, the saint seems to remind the observer of that. 

The patron saint of the company of San Benedetto Bianco, the Florentine religiously-grounded lay institution to which Carlo Dolci himself was devoted, is represented with the usual elements of his iconography.

Comparison of this painting reveals close affinities with many works by Carlo Dolci, in particular the St Peter in the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery in Greenville, which shares the evocative gaze and the features delineated with great mastery and realism. The folds of the drapery recall those of the St Andrew the Apostle in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.

This work might be the painting of a half figure of St Benedict - the ‘mezza figura al naturale’ - described by Filippo Baldinucci as one of Dolci’s works painted for his personal physician Antonio Lorenzi.