Always lovely to see an old book on display, this one in the Cathedral’s museum dates to 1523 and is known as an antiphonary, or a religious book which was used by the choir. The imagery, beautifully created, depicts Moses showing the Tablets of the Law.
This statue was once located on the north side of Florence Cathedral and depicts King David. It was sculpted by Andrea Pisano (1290-1348), who became the Master of Works at the Cathedral in 1340, between 1337 and 1341. This sculpture was part of a set of depictions that were designed to show those prophesied the coming of Jesus.
Saint Zenobius was the first bishop of Florence and there is a story passed down the generations that when his body was being moved from the Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze to the Cathedral that it touched a dead elm which then burst into flower. A gardening miracle can’t be a bad thing, although the Saint today is better known from being children back to life after they’ve died. There’s a pillar now at the spot where this miracle is said to have taken place, which is often today marked with flowers at its base.
It’s not known when the first pillar was placed there, but it’s known that it was lost during the flood of 1333, but was replaced in the following year. The pillar collapsed in 1501 and was then repaired, still standing today. The details on various web-sites of the pillar suggest that the fourteenth century version is still in situ.
However, this pillar at the Cathedral museum is dated as being from the fourteenth century. So, it’s either the one that was installed in 1334 and there was a new one added in 1501, or this is somehow something else. However, the cross does look like the one which is currently standing and it’s a wonderful tradition. I like to think that this is the fourteenth century cross which fell in 1501, now located just a stone’s throw from the current one. Quite a long stone’s throw, but just about doable.
This is the death mask created (or cast, however he made it….) by Andrea di Lazzaro Cavalcanti, also known as Buggiano, a sculptor who lived in Florence between 1412 and 1462. The element that interested me is that during this period of Florence’s history, it apparently became popular for people to have death masks on display in their homes. So here we are during a great renaissance period of art and the local denizens decide to buy themselves some death masks to display. Buggiano worked on numerous buildings, including Florence Cathedral, with this death mask dating from 1446.
The death mask is of Buggiano’s step-father, Filippo Brunelleschi, who was responsible for much of the construction of the dome of Florence Cathedral. Brunelleschi was buried in the Cathedral in 1446 and his tomb was lost for many centuries, only being rediscovered in 1972.
