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Before the commission for frescoing the choir chapel of the Prato Cathedral was awarded to Lippi, the most elaborate decoration in the chapel had been a stained glass window, executed in 1416 after a design by Lorenzo Monaco, but already in poor condition a mere twenty years later. Concurrently with the painting of the chapel, that window was replaced with a new one designed by Filippo Lippi and created by the Florentine stained glass painter Fra Lorenzo d'Antonio da Pelago. Because of its great size (44 m2) the window is one of the chapel's major features. The program of this new window was attuned to that of the chapel's paintings. St John the Baptist and St Stephen are portrayed in a prominent spot, just below the depiction in the arch section of the Virgin's presentation of her girdle to St Thomas, a reminder that the relic had once been housed there.
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