The so-called "Madonna with the Glass Eyes", a Madonna and Child in Majesty, is a marble masterpiece by Arnolfo di Cambio, created between 1300 and 1305, to decorate the tympanum of the central portal of the facade of the Cathedral of Florence. Sculpted in very high relief only in the visible parts, it features glass paste inserts in the eye sockets of the Virgin, hence the name. Arnolfo depicted Mary with the appearance of a 14th-century queen: she is seated on a throne, wrapped in a long mantle and a robe richly embroidered in the sleeves. Her head is veiled and crowned, while her feet, wearing shoes typical of early 14th-century Italy, rest on a cushion (pulvino). The Christ Child, by contrast, is depicted as a Roman lawgiver: he sits on his mother's lap, looking straight ahead, while holding the scroll of the law in his left hand and making the gesture of blessing with his right. But the two figures are not reduced to a noble, purely spiritual abstraction: through the volumetric synthesis characteristic of his style, Arnolfo has endowed them with a strong sense of physical presence, making them human and tangible. Mary, in particular, stands out for her powerful physicality, evident in her bull-like neck, round face, abundant breasts, and still swollen belly. This solidity, combined with the realistic effect of the glass eyes, gives the Virgin an intense vitality. Her gaze, gentle and serene, seems to welcome the observer. The sculptural group was completed by the figures of St. Reparata and St. Zanobi, co-patrons of Florence, placed at the sides, by two adoring angels and by some curtain-holding angels lifting a drape aloft. The throne dossal, still visible behind the Virgin, is decorated with marble mosaic inlays featuring star motifs—a clear reference to one of Mary's titles, “Stella Maris” (Star of the Sea), a symbol of Our Lady as the guide of the faithful, (as the stars orient sailors). The entire group was part of the large sculptural cycle created by Arnolfo and his collaborators for the three portals of the unfinished facade, whose iconographic program centered on the story of Mary, the temple’s titular figure. When the incomplete Arnolfo facade was demolished in 1587, the statue of the Virgin was moved inside the cathedral, where it was later venerated as miraculous.