Campanile

A free-standing structure, the Campanile is the bell tower for the Duomo. At 279 feet, its tower is just 19 feet lower than Brunelleschi's dome. The photo to the left shows the entire Campanile, and was shot from the Duomo. Giotto was involved in the original design of the tower, but only the base was completed when he died in 1337; Andrea Pisano completed the second story, and the tower was finished by Francesco Talenti. The outer surface is decorated with the same finish as the Duomo--white marble from Carrara, green marble from Prato, and pink marble from the marshland area of southern Tuscany. The design of the Campanile is complex and inextricably linked to Scholasticism. The reliefs at the very bottom (visible in the full-size version of the photo to the lower left) show the Creation of Man and the Arts and Industries (weaving, hunting, and navigation). On the north face the five Liberal Arts (grammar, philosophy, music, mathematics and astronomy) are displayed, while the upper tier of reliefs illustrate the Seven Planets, the Seven Virtues, and the Seven Sacrements. The first two sets of reliefs have been attributed to Luca della Robbia, while the Seven Sacraments have been attributed to Alberto Arnoldi. Like the doors of the Battistero, most of the original reliefs have been sheltered from the elements in the nearby Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.