The Campanile di Giotto, Giotto's Belltower, is one of the most beautiful, most solid and most elegant constructions of its kind. The first part of the tower is ornamented with two sets of bas-reliefs. We shall examine the subject of each one with the certain or most probable name of the author.South side, towards the Misericordia, representing the second stage of society, the state or nation.
3- The invention of pottery and medicine. Potter in his shop with shelves and vases.
4- A man taming his horse. Typical expression of male energy.
5- A woman weaving at her loom. An expression of female domesticity.
6- Phoroneus representing Legislation. Two public officials and two kneeling figures.
7- Daedalus with spread wings, representing the dispersion of nations, or, according to
others, the conquest of the element of air.
Daedalus, the mythical Athenian craftsman who built the labyrinth for Minos
and made wings for himself and his son Icarus to escape from Crete.
These also are generally attributed to Andrea Pisano and other artists of his school.
Upper Series, The three Theological and Four Cardinal Virtues: faith, charity, hope.
Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude.
The east side represents the discovery and conquest of the East, with the introduction
of the new law of Christianity.
1- Navigation, represented by figures rowing a boat.
2- Hercules with his club standing over Antoeus (or Cacus)dead at his feet,
indicative of the subduing of the earth, or according to others indicating war.
3- Agriculture represented by a man ploughing with two oxen.
4- Trade. A cart drawn by two horses.
The next bas-relief is lacking, the space being occupied by the cuspid of the small entrance
door. The lamb bearing the cross, symbolising the appearance of the Christian faith.
5- Geometry. An old man at a desk holding a pair of compasses.
The last work on this side and the others on the north side represent development of
imagination and reason.
Upper Series, the Seven Liberal Arts: Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Grammar, Rhetoric,
Logic and Arithemetic. Andrea Pisano school.
North side, towards the Duomo.
1- Sculpture. Phidias working with is chisel.
Phidias, regarded as the greatest of all classical Greek sculptors.
2- Painting. Apelles painting.
Apelles (4th cent.) The renowned painter of ancient Greece.
3- Grammar. Donato or Priscianus teaching grammar.
Priscianus Caesariensis, a latin grammarian of 5th-6th cent.
4- Philosophy. Plato and Aristoteles
5– Music. A singer playing on the lyre. (Orpheus or Arion)
6- The Exact Sciences. Tolomeus and Euclid.
Claudius Ptolomaeus, ca 85 –165.
7- Music, or Invention of Harmony. An old man deducing the laws of harmony by
istening to the sounds of a bar of iron, as he strikes it with a hammer.
The first two is by Andrea Pisano, the others by Luca or Andrea della Robbia.
Upper Series, The Seven Sacraments: Baptism, Confession, Matrimony, Holy Order,
Confirmation, The Eucharist, and the Extreme Unction. All attributed to Maso di Banco,
except Matrimony, which is attributed to Gino Micheli daCastello.
