Follower of Arnolfo di Cambio, Six apostles and evangelists

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Author
Follower of Arnolfo di Cambio
Date
C. 1300-1324
Collocation
Sala del Paradiso
Original location
Cathedral, "Bell tower" Door
Material
White marble
Technique
Sculpture
Scientific catalog (only in italian)
Sei apostoli ed evangelisti

Group of six small sculptures, in white marble, depicting apostles and evangelists, attributed to a sculptor follower of Arnolfo di Cambio who carved them in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. The sculptures come from the group placed to adorn the so-called "Bell Tower" door on the southern side of the Cathedral and according to scholars they were part of the group of ten apostles created by Arnolfo's collaborators for the the main portal of the Cathedral and then moved away. The statuettes, certainly of inferior workmanship compared to the originals by Arnolfo, and very worn by time, are partially identifiable. From left to right we find a bearded and elderly figure, holding a book, probably an evangelist. Saint Matthew follows, also elderly and with a long beard and dressed in the old-fashioned way, he holds up on the book of his Gospel a small angel, his symbolic figure by tradition. The third statuette depicts a headless and very ruined character, old-fashioned dressed and generically identifiable with an Apostle. The fourth is Saint Bartholomew, also elderly, he shows a book, the Gospel, richly bound and wears a sumptuous robe. Like him, Saint John the evangelist, elderly and with a long beard, carries his Gospel open and on it rests his animal symbol by tradition: the eagle. The series ends with a figure of a clean-shaven and robed apostle.

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Sala del Paradiso