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This relief is one of the seven 'discoverers of the crafts' in the lower register of the socle of the Campanile, of which four are on the west side.
Noah was the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (in the Book of Genesis, chapters 5-9). The Genesis flood narrative is among the best-known stories of the Bible, but Noah is also portrayed as a "tiller of the soil" and as a drinker of wine.
The programme of the decoration of the Campanile is a visual scholastic summary of encyclopaedic content. It places an unusual emphasis on the concept of work, one of the primary ways medieval and Renaissance people defined their existence, but in a marked departure from the usual medieval context of Labours of the Months. Andrea's scheme appears to reflect a belief in the value of work, which eventually lead to the strong Florentine profit motive and increasing economic prosperity.
The relief was executed by a collaborator of Andrea Pisano, called the Master of Noah.
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