Mosaic ceiling of the Florence Baptistery
It is one of the most important cycles of medieval Italian mosaics, created between 1225 and around 1330 using designs by major Florentine painters such as Cimabue, Coppo di Marcovaldo, Meliore and the Master of the Magdalen, probably by mosaicists from Venice.
[citation needed] According to Vasari the earliest mosaics was by Andrea Tafi, a semi-legendary figure, who produced the angelic hierarchies and the Pantocrator assisted by Apollonio, a Greek he had met in Venice.
Around the medallion is inscribed "HIC DEUS EST MAGNUS MITIS QUEM DENOTAT AGNUS" ("here is great God shown as a mild lamb") in gold letters on a red background.
Between the rays are eight full-length depictions of prophets in Byzantine style with name labels at their feet – anticlockwise these are Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, Ezekiel, Jermiah and Isaiah.
The other five segments are subdivided into four horizontal registers showing (from top to bottom) stories from the Book of Genesis (3) and the lives of Joseph (4), the Virgin Mary (5), Christ (5) and John the Baptist (6).
The closest part to the centre of the dome contains a series of frames with lively plant-form decoration, followed by a band with spirals and rhythmic figurative images reminiscent of the wheel in the apse – in each corner is a kind of vase made of fantastical plant elements, aligned to small columns in the lowest register.
These all have two wings and are all identical to their pair, except for those on the same axis as Christ which are mirror images of each other: According to Pietro Toesca, the artist behind the first register was the same brother Jacopo who worked on the rectangular apse, assisted by Venetian masters.
[2] The angelic hierarchies are traditionally attributed to Andrea Tafi and Apollonio, though Ragghianti argues Coppo di Marcovaldo produced the cartoon for the figure of Christ and the Master of the Maddalena that for the Powers.
The large feet also show the wounds from the Crucifixion – their staggered pose, the robe's complex pleats and the side view of the legs avoid a rigid frontal effect, highlighted with golden tesserae.
The elect are driven towards a group giving thanks to God and accompanied by a large angel holding a scroll reading "Venite Beneditti Patris Mei / Ossidete Preparatum" ("Come, [ye] blessed of my father / sit in the places prepared [for you]")[4] towards the Heavenly Jerusalem.
In the city three large patriarchs sit holding small sweetbreads in their laps amidst extraordinary colourful plants in a green flower-dotted meadow, the latter symbolised by a band.
Satan's ass's ears underline his feral nature and are attributes of Lucifer and the Antichrist, whilst his horns derive from the Celtic god Cernunnos and symbolise the Church's defeat of paganism.
They show saints: The women's galleries instead bear panels of prophets and patriarchs, attributed to the late 13th century Gaddo Gaddi by Vasari, who also states they were produced without studio assistance, though modern art historians also recognise the hands of his workshop and Andrea Tafi in them.
