Page of the illustrated manuscript "The  Illustrated Regulations for Ceremonial   Paraphernalia of the Present Dynasty."

These four panels were commissioned in the 1460s by the Alessandri family in Florence in order to update a Gothic style altarpiece painted 150 years earlier in the church of San Pier Maggiore. In them, the fifth-century bishop of Florence resuscitates a dead child on the square in front of San Pier Maggiore; the magician Simon Magus crashes to the ground at the feet of Emperor Nero when Saint Peter commands the demons who suspended him in midair to let him go; Saint Paul falls from his horse at the apparition of Christ; Totila, king of the Goths, asks the blessing of Saint Benedict. From his work with Fra Angelico and the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, Gozzoli evolved a narrative style of great charm. For more information about these four paintings, including a reconstruction of the altarpiece, visit metmuseum.org.

1736 / 1795, Beijing

1736 / 1795, Beijing

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