La nascita
The cross vault of the chapel is adorned with monumental majesty by the compact volumes of the Evangelists, well adapted to the triangular spaces.

On the left wall is the legendary life of St. Stephen, the patron saint of Prato, based on ancient traditions and rarely represented in art: the lunette contains the Birth of the St. Stephen – depicted in an open view in perspective of the room – and his substitution with a diabolical changeling by a demon (seen only by another child (see images), whose pose “in contrast” seems to anticipate Michelangelo). Abandoned on a ship set adrift, the boy is nursed by a doe, then found by a woman who consigns him to Bishop Giuliano (on the right). The difficult problem of closing the lunette, with its outwardly projecting spaces, is solved by a stroke of genius that makes use of an imposing red rock to cut it across the bottom. back >



<< The Stories of Saint Stephen