At the beginning of the 14th century, Arnolfo di Cambio and his collaborators sculpted in marble the two patron saints of Florence, Reparata and Zanobi, to place them on either side of Mary’s throne, above the central portal of the cathedral’s ancient façade. The group was completed by two curtain-holding angels pretending to lift a drape, and two adoring angels.

Saint Reparata, a virgin and martyr who lived in Caesarea of Palestine in the 3rd century, was the patron saint of Florence’s old cathedral and, according to legend, interceded for the city's victory over the Ostrogoths in the 5th century AD. Depicted with the volumetric synthesis and naturalism typical of the sculptor (although it features later retouching), Reparata appears as a young vestal, draped in a sumptuous gown of ancient inspiration, with her head veiled and her hair gathered in a diadem. With an enchanted gaze and a half-open mouth, she steps forward to offer the Christ Child a burning oil jar, which she holds in her hands—an allusion to the lamp that the "wise virgins" of the Gospel parable (Matthew 25:1-13) kept filled with oil while waiting for the bridegroom, that is, Christ.

On the other side stands Saint Zanobi, a disciple of Saint Ambrose and the first bishop of Florence, whose remains are preserved in the Cathedral. According to his hagiography, in 405 he invoked Reparata’s intercession against the barbarian hordes. Arnolfo portrayed him in episcopal robes, with a mitre, pastoral staff, and a richly decorated cope, in an apparently prayerful pose, with his right hand raised and his head slightly bowed.

When the unfinished façade was demolished in 1587, the two sculptures met different fates: Saint Zanobi was kept in the Cathedral, while Saint Reparata entered the Medici collections and was placed in the Boboli Gardens. One of the adoring angels, the left one, is now in the Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, Mass.).