NANNI DI BANCO
(b. ca. 1375, Firenze, d. 1421, Firenze)

Quattro Santi Coronati

1408-13
Marble, height c. 185 cm
Orsanmichele, Florence

Nanni sculpted the group called Quattro Santi Coronati for his own guild, the Arte dei Maestri di Pietra and Legname (Guild of the Stone and Woodcutters). The life-size figures arranged in a semi-circle represent Claudius, Castor, Symphorian and Nicostratus, four Christian sculptors who refused to execute a statue of Aesculapius for the Emperor Diocletian; they were confused with Christian soldiers, were martyred for not venerating the Emperor and were worshipped as the Quattro Coronati.