Nanni d'Antonio di Banco

Along with the architect Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), and the sculptors
Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), and Donatello (1386-1466), Nanni di Banco helped
to shape the course of the Early Renaissance in Florence, Italy, and was an
important figure in the transition from International Gothic to Renaissance
art.
1. St. Luke - (1408)

2. Quattro Santi Coronati (Four

Famous Works
Saints) - (1408-1415)

3. Assumption of the Virgin -

(1414-1421)
Santa Maria
del Fiore
or
Florence
Cathedral
St. Luke
 This was his last major
work and was probably
finished posthumously
by Luca della Robbia,
who is generally
thought to have been
Nannis student.

Assumption of the Virgin

Four angels lift the mandorla while the Virgin hands her girdle to St. Thomas at the bottom left (the belt has since disappeared). A famous
doubter, Thomas had asked for a sign she had really ascended. Three music-playing angels are at the top of the gable while a bear shakes an oak

(1414-21)
tree for acorns at the bottom right. Frederick Hartt explains that perhaps Nanni contrasts the animal's greed with the divine grace granted to St.
Thomas. He also sees the energetic style as proto-Baroque.

The main relief is composed of eleven sections of white marble. Notice the elaborate border of inlaid marble in a design of hanging lamps
shown in perspective; lamps are a traditional symbol of Mary, but the specific nature of these examples may reflect the use of hanging lamps in
Florentine ritual in honour of the Virgin.
Orsanmichele
 The Four Crowned Martyr Saints
are carved out of three marble
blocks, the two rightmost figures
crafted from a single piece. The
recent conservation has revealed
that the four saints' hair and

Four Crowned Martyrs

beards were once completely
gilded, while the sandals and the
borders of the Roman garments

or
had gilded decoration. During
restoration campaigns in the
late eighteenth and mid-

Four Crowned Saints

nineteenth centuries the statues,
like most of the marbles of
Orsanmichele, were coated with
a dark, pigmented oil that

(Quattro Santi Coronati)

probably gave them a bronzelike
patina. The effects of pollution
accentuated the dark surface of
the figures, creating a severe
appearance at odds with Nanni's
original conception of the
sculpture in gleaming white
marble and gold
End.