On Extreme Left of West Wall
Anne Montgomery
In this panel, dating from the 13th to early 15th century we have Giotto as a boy, Cimabue the forerunner of the new art, Arnoldo de Cambro, Francis Talenti and Brunelleschi all who helped create the Duomo. Also featured are Boccaccio, Dante and Beatrice.
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Jeane Diamond
This subject of the centre panel is Lorenzo de Medici riding through the streets of Florence, Loenzo the Magnificent (1448-1492), eminent figure of his age, was the fountainhead of the new culture that was destined to spread far and wide in the golden age of the Italian Renaissance.
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Calvin Smith
This is Florence at the full height of Renaissance achievement. On the left is Ghiberti, designer of the wonderful bronze doors of the baptistery, talking to Donatello and Luco della Robbia, the famous sculptors who helped to cast the doors. Raphael, Michelangelo and Botticelli are in the centre. With Leonardo da Vinci, further to the right, we are mong the artists gathered there to determine the position of Michelangelo’s “David”.
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The North Panel
Walter Beaumont
The figures in this panel are representatives of the degenerate nobility of the 14th century Florence. On the left a typical nobleman is preparing, with the aid of a follower, to visit the festival of the Cur in Florence. The romantic spirit of the period is symbolised by the lovers. Next a wealthy Mesici dwarf is awaiting his page preparatory to joining the retinue crossing the bridge. The atmosphere of commerce is suggested by the two traders on the right. The scene is a private garden on the outskirts of the city.
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East Wall
Jeane Diamond
This is Bibbiena, a little Tuscan hill city, possessing some fine Renaissance palaces. The town is famous as the birthplace of Cardinal Bibbiena, one of the greatest “ornaments” of the art court of Urbino in the sixteenth century. The river Arno runs through the beautiful country at the foot of the Bibbiena.
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Anne Montgomery
Sam Gimignano, on the highroad between Florence and Sienna- scene of many a struggle between the rival factions of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. Its many towers, numbering some fifty in medieval days, bear witness to those stormy times. Late in the 13th century, Dante was sent to this city as emissary from Florence.
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In the bar
Calvin Smith
Fiesole, the small but famous town overlooking Florence on the other side of the hill. The Arno flows into the foreground. The near figures have just bathed in its waters. The young man on the left is not waving his fists at his companion on the lower level – merely controlling his balance on the crumbling bank.
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