This group of six monumental marble statues, depicting saints and prophets in ancient attire—four of them headless and four flanked by pairs of adoring angels—was sculpted at the end of the 14th century. They originally stood in the tabernacles on the second level of the medieval façade of the Cathedral, flanking the central portal. From left to right, the figures include: a possible prophet by Jacopo di Piero Guidi, Saint Barnabas by Giovanni d’Ambrogio, Saint Lawrence by Piero di Giovanni Tedesco; and on the opposite side, Saint Stephen and Saint Victor, both by Piero di Giovanni Tedesco. The final statue, an older work by Andrea Pisano, depicts a headless Saint Lawrence.

The angels were sculpted by Piero di Giovanni Tedesco, except for one (the third from the left), which is a 19th-century cast—the original is now in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. Following the dismantling of the façade, these sculptures were relocated: the headless saints were moved to the courtyard of Palazzo Medici Riccardi and reinterpreted as ancient philosophers, while the angels were sent to the Villa Medicea della Petraia and later to private collections. Today, some reside in museums: an the angel in New York, another in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, and the saints Stephen and Lawrence in the Louvre (these last two here are replaced by ancient casts).

These are four saints particularly linked to the Florentine Church: Larence and Stephen affared to the people of the nearby churches dedicated to these saints, while on the days of the feasts of saints Barnaba and Victor the Florentines reported important military victories, respectively, against the Pisans in Cascina, in 1364, and against Arezzo at Campaldino, in 1289.