Dante on the Duomo

Not many people know that Dante is depicted on the Duomo, and yet it’s true. The quatrefoil that frames Dante’s upper body is the fourth from the left just below the façade’s pediment, where the red ellipse is on the photo above. Made by Cesare Fantacchiotti (1844-1922), the sculpture is rather more easily examined in the Museo del Duomo (room 26), where a preparatory plaster still resides. In addition to his half-figures of Dante and Leonardo, Fantacchiotti also made the statue of St. Bartholomew for the façade of Santa Maria del Fiore. He apprenticed for his father, Odoardo Fantacchiotti, who made the particularly disappointing statue for the Piazzale degli Uffizi of Giovanni Boccaccio, who is made to seem more like a volleyball coach caught in a moment of apathy than a great early humanist and storyteller.

In addition to his artistic skills, Cesare was said to speak an excellent English and to have been a very welcome guest at garden parties in the villas of the Grand Tour.