Reliefs on the north side

When Giotto died in 1337, Andrea Pisano became capomaestro for the unfinished Campanile (bell tower) beside the Florence Cathedral. Andrea and his workshop produced a comprehensive program of over fifty marble relief sculptures divided into two registers around the building's four exterior walls. Hexagon-shaped panels carved from marble decorated the lower register, while the upper register displayed diamond-shaped marble panels complete with a blue maiolica background.

The reliefs on the upper register the north wall depict six of the seven sacraments: Baptism, Confessio, Matrimony, Confirmation, Eucharist, and Extreme Unction/ Anointing of the Sick. The missing sacrament, Holy Orders, has survived as only a small fragment. Each scene merges traditional Gothic elements (geometric shapes, stiff drapery) with classicism (naturalistic bodies and postures), similar to the panels originally placed below depicting scenes of the liberal arts. These reliefs, with the exception of Matrimony, areattributed to Maso di Banco.

The hexagonal panels on the lower register depict Phidias as Sculpture, Apelles as Painting, Priscian teaching Grammar, Logic and Dialectic (represented by Plato and Aristotle), Music and Poetry (represented by Orpheus), Geometry and Arithmetic (represented by Euclid and Pythagoras), Blacksmithing (represented by Tubalcain). The first two panels are attributed to Andrea Pisano, the others to Luca della Robbia. The panels by Luca della Robbia were added after removal of the raised passageway between the campanile and the cathedral.