Pulpit

Having been commissioned by the wealthy Florentine merchant, Pietro Mellini, the pulpit in the Basilica di Santa Croce (Florence) was completed around 1485. In 1474, Benedetto da Maiano had made the famous portrait bust of Mellini. The marble pulpit, which was attached to one of the columns in the nave of the basilica, was one of Benedetto’s masterworks and assumed an influential place in Florentine quattrocento sculpture. The pulpit parapet depicts the life of Saint Francis of Assisi and scenes from the history of the religious order founded by him: papal confirmation of the Franciscan order, Saint Francis before the sultan, the stigmatisation and death of Saint Francis, and the martyrdom of the Franciscans in Morocco. Between the consoles supporting the parapet, there are five niches with female personifications of the virtues. The plaster cast copies of the latter seem to have been lost during World War II. Commissioned by the museum in 1906, cast by Giuseppe Lelli in Florence.