GIOVANNI and PACIO DA FIRENZE
(documented 1343-1345)

Scene from the Life of St Catherine of Alexandria

1343-45
Marble
Museo dell'Opera di Santa Chiara, Naples

This relief was executed by Giovanni and Pacio da Firenze. They are mentioned in the documents of 1343-45. Their principal work is the tomb of Robert of Anjou in Santa Chiara in Naples. Apart from a fragment of the tomb of Louis of Durazzo (d. 1344) in Santa Chiara, the only other important attribution to them is the now largely destroyed series of eleven scenes from the Story of St Catherine of Alexandria which was once built into the choir of Santa Chiara. Delicately carved in white marble against a dark green marble ground, these simple-seeming scenes possess a cameo-like quality, a clarity and sophistication to which Giovanni and Pacio could rise.