Tomb of Riccardo Annibaldi (fragment)

Like the tomb of Pope Hadrian V, the Annibaldi monument rested on a mosaic base, and was in this respect indistinguishable from the monuments of the Cosmati. What was not assimilated by Roman sculptors is a frieze originally set behind the effigy showing six deacons assisting at the office for the dead. This relief on a “cosmati” background seems to have been inspired by drawings of French monumental sculpture.

The attribution to Arnolfo is on stylistic grounds. The relief is typical in its overall simplification of the draperies, and their particular round jowly type of face with small, rather pig eyes.