Dormition of the Virgin (fragment)

In later life Arnolfo di Cambio returned to Florence (1296) and embarked on the ambitious project for the fa�ade of the Duomo until his death. It is known from paintings, a drawing and descriptions, which show that Arnolfo’s fa�ade then rose only to the height of the tympanum of the central portal. The sculptures on it included episodes from the childhood of Christ and the life of Mary, a Virgin and Child, and statues of prophets and saints, including Pope Boniface VIII. The museums of Florence (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) and Berlin (Bodemuseum) preserve two sculptures of the Virgin reclining that come respectively from the Nativity and the Dormition, and a seated Virgin holding the Child. The arrangement of the fa�ade introduces statues in niches, thus covering the walls of the lower parts.

This fragment, badly damaged in May 1945, was the centrepiece of a figural group depicting the death of the Virgin Mary that Arnolfo di Cambio made as part of a cycle on the life of the Virgin that was in the tympanum of the right portal of Florence cathedral’s old fa�ade, demolished in 1587. A double bust of two apostles, part of the same group, is also in Berlin. The sculptural quality of the undamaged half-figure of St John the Apostle, with its head reminiscent of Hellenistic sculpture, and the monumental character of the entire marble block show a grandeur that makes this fragment, despite the destruction of Mary’s face, one of the most magnificent works in the history of Italian art.