View of the nave
by DEODATO DI ORLANDI, Fresco
The murals in the nave, commissioned in the Jubilee year 1300 by Benedetto Caetani, at the time Parish priest of the Church San Piero a Grado, was carried out by Deodato di Orlandi, an artist from Lucca who at that time worked at Pisa, from 1300 to 1312.
In the lower part of the large fresco cycle are portraits of Popes, from St Peter to John XVIII (1303); the intermediate portion has thirty panels with Stories of St Peter’s Life (as well of those of St Paul, Constantine and St Sylvester), similar to those in the Old St Peter’s Basilica and to Cimabue’s work at San Francesco in Assisi. In the upper area are portrayed the Walls of the Heaven City.
The frescoes had been covered with plaster from the fifteenth century until a restoration in the years 1885-88. The fresco cycle was recently restored.