Giovanni [Florence Baptistery]

Name of structure: Giovanni [Florence Baptistery]
Extended name of structure: Battistero di San Giovanni
Type of structure: Baptistery
Country or main area: Italy
Region within country or main area: Tuscany
City or area within region: Florence
Date of structure:

Original building 4th-5th century, became official baptistery in 1128.
Century of structure 1: 4 AD
Century of structure 2: 11 AD
Specific place of mosaic: 14th century mosaics:
Early 14th C - west side, chancel, the vault (Paolucci, p. 245), gallery, parapet screens (Paolucci, pp. 300-308)
1300-1310 - East side, gallery, first tribune (Angelic Hierarchies), central tribune (Evangelists), third tribune (Virgin), partition and back walls, central tribune (male busts), the drum (Paolucci, pp. 316-33, 342-47, 392-99)
1270-1305 - vault mosaics (Paolucci, pp. 436-9. 465-8, 481-3)
1300-1310 - soffit of architrave of door (Paolucci, p. 227)
1300-1320 - north east side, first order (Paolucci, p. 283)
Brief descriptive contents of mosaic:

Five horizontal registers (from centre): (1) floral pattern, lantern; (2) choirs of angels; (3) scenes from the Book of Genesis; (4) stories of Joseph; (5) stories of Mary and Christ; (6) stories of St John the Baptist. Exception: Christ and Last Judgement scene in registers (3)-(5) on 3 panels to the east (above high altar).
Drum under the ceiling: heads of prophets.
Date of mosaic: 1225-14C
Century of mosaic 1: 14 AD
Century of mosaic 2:
Silver tessera at site: No
Gold tessera at site: Yes
Colour tessera at site: Yes
Were other materials found at site (i.e., glass cakes)? No
Has analysis been done? Yes
Samples taken from where?

? (Verità, 2000)
Excavation and restoration campaigns: 19C, 1987-89: team from Opificio delle Pietre Dure a Firenze led by A. Giusti
Bibliography of mainly technical resources:

Toker, F., Archaeological Campaigns below the Florence Duomo and Baptistery, 1895-1980.  – The Florence Duomo Project, vol. 2, (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011)


Verità, M., 'Tecniche di fabbricazione dei materiali musivi vitrei attraverso indagini chimiche e mineralogiche', in Medieval Mosaics.: Light, Color, Materials, ed by E. Borsook, F. Superbi & G. Pagliarulo (Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2000), 47-64.


Antonelli, E. & Raddi Delle Ruote, G., ‘I mosaici del Battistero di San Giovanni: restauro di un coretto’, Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) Restauro 6 (1994), 134-43.


Antonelli, E., ‘Stacco e ricollazione del pannello musivo raffigurante il profeta Elia net Battistero di Firenze’, in Mosaici a S.Vitale e altri restauri.Il restauro in situ di mosaici parietali, ed by A. M. Iannucci, C. Fiori & C. Muscolino (Ravenna: Longo Editore, 1992), 165-7.


Annoni, T., Antonelli, E. & Giusti, A., ‘I mosaici del Battistero di San Giovanni: l' intervento sulla parete sud-occidentale', Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) Restauro 2 (1990), 113-9.


Antonelli, E., Annoni, T., Diana, M., Guidi, G., Leoni, M., Matteini, M., Moles, A., Pierdominici, F. & Rizzi., M., 'I mosaici del battistero di San Giovanni: primi studi sulle tecniche di esecuzione', Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) Restauro (1989), 203-15. 

Arletti, Rossella, Sonia Conte, Mariangela Vandini, Cesare Fiori, Susanna Bracci, Mauri Bacci and Simone Porcinai, ‘Florence baptistery: chemical and mineralogical investigation of glass mosaic tesserae’, Journal of Archaeological Science, 38 (2011), 79-88


Paolucci, Antonio, Il Battistero di San Giovanni a Firenze/The Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence (Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1994), 2 vols


 
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