Balustrade in the choir (detail)

A project began in 1547 to replace Brunelleschi’s octagonal wooden choir enclosure and altar under the crossing of Florence Cathedral with a grand new marble one, decorated with bronze reliefs and marble statuary. Its balustrade survives and once contained a series of 88 upright rectangular panels of individual Old Testament figures, depicted in a great variety of poses and from different angles, in characteristically academic fashion (64 panels in situ, the rest in Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Florence). They are carved in a creditable imitation of Donatello’s shallow relief: some on the western side are initialed BBF and dated 1555.