This remarkable and beautiful new volume examines twenty-three major artworks that were produced to decorate Sta. Maria del Fiore in Florence, better known to visitors as the Duomo, or cathedral, in the first decades of the 1400s.

These include nine works alone by Donatello, considered one of the greatest and most influential Italian sculptors, including his masterpiece Lo Zuccone, and The Evangelist John which inpsired Michelangelo. There is also a detailed discussion of Ghiberti's gilded bronze Gates of Paradise, created for the Eastern end of the cathedral, which includes remarkable shots of the doors before, and after, their current restoration.

With four chapters by leading scholars, and a catalog presenting over fifty superb color plates of the artworks, beautifully photographed by leading art photographer Antonio Quattrone, this volume explains how these masterpieces had a profound impact on the art of the Italian Renaissance.

This is a major new scholarly survey, and will become a seminal text on the artistic imagination, creativity, and skill of the Florentine Renaissance.

Mons. Timothy Verdon is the director of both the Diocesan Office of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage Ecclesiastical and the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore.

Daniel Zolli is a doctoral candidate in Harvard University's history of art and architecture department.

Amy R. Bloch is assistant professor of art history at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY).

Marco Ciatti is director of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.

Author: Timothy Verdon
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Giles
Published: 03/17/2015
Pages: 200
Weight: 3.6lbs
Size: 12.00h x 10.00w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781907804564


Review Citation(s):
New York Review of Books 04/23/2015 pg. 12
Choice 08/01/2015

About the Author
Timothy Verdon is Director of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and Professor of Art History at the Stanford University Florence Center. He is Canon of Florence Cathedral and Director of the Office for Church Heritage of the Archdiocese of Florence. His publications include Francesco d'Assis negli Affreschi di Giotto, and the three-volume La cattedrale e la città
saggi sul Duomo di Firenze. Atti del VII centenario del Duomo di Firenze, for which he was co-editor.

Daniel M. Zolli is a doctoral candidate in Harvard's History of Art and Architecture Department, where he is completing a dissertation on Donatello's workshops.

Amy R. Bloch is Assistant Professor of Art History at the University at Albany, State University of New York (SUNY). She has published essays on Ghiberti, Donatello, and the decoration of the Florence baptistery, and her book on Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press.

Marco Ciatti is Superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, an institution of the Italian Ministry of Culture and world leader in the field of art restoration. He is also director of the Opificio's Conservation Laboratory for Easel Paintings and Textiles and teaches history and theory of conservation.

Stefano Nicastri is an architect and art historian who has collaborated for many years with the Italian Ministry of Culture's Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione in the areas of Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture.