Marble Portal
Benedetto da Maiano, Giuseppe Lelli (cast maker)
- Artist
-
Benedetto da Maiano
Maiano 1442 – 1497 Firenze
Giuseppe Lelli
(cast maker)
Firenze
- Dated
- 1480 (original), 1907 (cast)
- Classification
- sculpture, plaster cast, doors
- Medium
- plaster cast
- Dimensions
- 500 × 260 × 40 cm
- Inv.no.
- Rg.210
- Department
- Sculpture
- Current Location of the Original Artwork
- Italy, Florence, Palazzo Vecchio
Between 1476 and 1481, Benedetto and Giuliano da Maiano and their assistants worked on the interior of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. The elaborate portals of the Sala del Consiglio and the Sala dei Gigli are reminiscent of classical antiquity and seem to have been designed by Benedetto. Enveloped by semicircular pediments, each portal is crowned by ornate sculptural decoration, with cherubs holding candelabra at the side and a statue in the middle. Above the door to the Sala del Consiglio sits Justitia, the allegorical figure of justice, while Saint John the Baptist tops the entrance to the Sala dei Gigli. A cast of the latter portal was ordered in 1907 by the Museum of Fine Arts, but the statue of Saint John and the cherub figures at the top of the cast were lost during World War II.