Santi di Tito, Musician angels

This spectacular fresco wall painting was created by the Florentine painter Santi di Tito, probably in 1589, on the occasion of the wedding between the Grand Duke Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine as part of the large decorative displays set up for the occasion (and known thanks to the description by Gualderotti).

The painter, one of the greatest Florentine artists of that time, filled the blind arches of Arnolfo's counter-façade, giving it a spatial depth and making it appear illusionistically like a large loggia, also open on the opposite side and silhouetted against a golden sky. Groups of angels of different ages, clothing and poses look out from inside, playing a variety of wind and string musical instruments and dropping flower crowns in the center.

The fresco modernized this medieval lookin wall of the Cathedral, but respectfully fittingit  in armony with this most ancient elements: he used gold to harmonizes it with the mosaic of the central lunette, and the invention of the angels celebrating in a loggia, behind a colonnade, seems to echo Donatello's “Cantoria”, that at that time was still above the Sacristy of the Canons (now in the Museum).