The eight panels are arranged in chronological order, first down the right wall, then down the left.At the top of the first panel, Adam’s son Seth receives from the Archangel Michael a branch from the Tree of Life which grows in the Garden of Paradise; in the lower part, he plants the branch in the mouth of his dead father, who lies in his grave, with Eve mourning to the right. Sixth panel – During the 26-year long war (602-28) between the Byzantine and Persian Empires, the Emperor Chosroes takes the city of Jerusalem in 614, and steals the relics of the True Cross, along with other relics and sacred vessels from the Holy Sepulcher.Seventh panel – As recounted in the Golden Legend’s entry on today’s feast, Chosroes builds himself a tower (here represented as a portico), with representations of the heavenly bodies, and devices that cause it turn and make a noise like thunder; sitting in the midst of it, with the Cross on one side to represent the Son, and a rooster on the other to represent the Holy Spirit, he orders the Persians to worship him as God the Father. (In11, 94-96, Dante makes a reference to the rapid ascent of his friend Giotto’s reputation in the estimation of their contemporaries, and the subsequent eclipse of his teacher: “In painting Cimabue thought / he held the field, and now it’s Giotto they acclaim; / the former only keeps a shadowed fame.”)In 1412, the sculptor Donatello, then in his mid-20s, added a wooden crucifix to the chapel in the left transept of the church.
Author: Gregory DiPippo
Published at: 2025-09-14 21:07:00
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