Baptismal font

Bernardo Rossellino

1447

Museum of the Collegiate of Sant'Andrea, Municipality of Empoli

This piece demonstrates the most extraordinary skill in its production. The large baptismal font sits on a platform which is decorated in the centre with lozenge shapes in white and green marble. At the centre is the coat of arms of the Giachini family, who commissioned it in 1447. The outer edge is decorated by a ring ending on each side with a volute from between whose bows emerge playful 'puttini' or baby angels holding aloft festoons of leaves and flowers. This baptismal font was produced at the height of the Florentine Renaissance. At the end of the nineteenth century the renowned connoisseur of sculpture, Eugene Münz described it as coming from the time when the relationship with classicism was so complete that it evokes a comparison with the ancient sculptures themselves.