ORCAGNA
(b. ca. 1308, Firenze, d. ca. 1368, Firenze)

Bust of a Prophet

1340s
Detached fresco
Ubriachi Chapel, Museo di Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The detached frescoes distributed on the walls, depicting thirty-five busts of Prophets and Saints and a fragment of a decorative band, come originally from the groins of the vault of the Cappella Maggiore of the church. They are the only fragments that have survived from the work by Orcagna and his assistants, dating to the years preceding the middle of the 14th century, that decorated the chapel before Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop painted their Stories of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist at the end of the 15th century,that we can still see today.

The picture shows the bust of a Prophet.