The painting’s full name is The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Evangelist and the Magdalen.

It is one of the earliest in his large body of work that includes large-scale frescoes or monumental altarpieces

They were created for the church and the priory of the Convent of San Marco in Florence, where the artist, who was also a Dominican friar, lived.

Today the former convent houses the art museum of San Marco.

Most of Fra Angelico’s paintings remain in situ across his native city, its surroundings, and in the Vatican.

But the Ashmolean Museum said The Crucifixion was one of the few surviving small-scale works on panel by the artist.

Dr Sturgis said it had been in the UK for “probably about two hundred years” but little was known about how it had made its way here.

“We don’t know exactly how it was bought, but it was bought by the Ashburtons, Lord Ashburton of the Baring family, and then it’s passed through that family and different branches of it and stayed in that family pool until now,” he said.

Prof Jennifer Sliwka, head of the Ashmolean’s department of western art, added that Lord Spencer Compton, the 7th Marquess of Northampton, was among the family members who inherited it.

“And then it was offered for sale at Christie’s Auction House,” she said.