This drawing, in watercolour and coloured ink on paper, is a study by Emilio De Fabris for the central portal of Santa Maria del Fiore, prepared in 1877. The sheet shows a detail of the oblique of the left jamb, decorated with twisted “Solomonic” columns, with a canopy niche where the statue of a bishop (St. Zenobius?) is placed.

This study dates to a moment when the architect Emilio De Fabris, designer of the new facade, inserted two niches in the conch of the central portal, prepared as a first operation. One year later, in 1878, De Fabris commissioned the philosopher Augusto Conti to study a complete iconographic program for the figures of the facade. The program envisaged placing the saints Zenobius and Reparata in the two portal niches. The figures were carved in 1881 by Giovanni Dupré and his daughter Amalia.