Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist, Renaissance fresco cycle in Prato Cathedral, Italy.

Stories of St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist is a fresco cycle in the Cappella Maggiore of Prato Cathedral, with many scenes from the lives of these two saints painted across the walls. The frescoes show dramatic moments like the stoning and the feast of Herod with carefully rendered details throughout.

In 1440 Prato allocated 1,200 gold florins to decorate the Cappella Maggiore; the provost Geminiano Inghirami first approached Fra Angelico, who declined, and in 1452 Filippo Lippi took the commission and settled in Prato with Fra Diamante. The work took fourteen years, finished in 1465 under Carlo di Cosimo de' Medici; Lippi left for Spoleto the next year. Vandalised with a black pen in October 1993, the cycle was restored from 2001 and the chapel reopened in 2007.

The two walls set Stephen, patron saint of Prato, against John the Baptist, protector of nearby Florence, so the chapel pairs civic identities. In the Funeral of Saint Stephen, set in a Palaeo-Christian basilica, Lippi painted contemporaries among the mourners: Pope Pius II in red, Carlo di Cosimo de' Medici behind him, and the artist's own self-portrait beside them. Salome's dance in the Feast of Herod may carry the features of Lucrezia Buti.

The cycle covers 400 m2 across the two side walls and the end wall of the Cappella Maggiore, read from top to bottom, with the two saints' lives mirroring each other. Since the 2007 reopening, an entrance ticket is required for the chapel. Much of the paint was applied a secco, so details such as the vases in the Feast of Herod have faded to halos.

In the Funeral of Saint Stephen, set in a Palaeo-Christian basilica, Lippi painted a self-portrait beside a red-dressed Pope Pius II and Carlo di Cosimo de' Medici, placing himself among the mourners.