You are standing before the Porta della Mandorla, one of the side doors of Santa Maria del Fiore. Its name comes from the relief of the Assumption above it, by Nanni di Banco: the Virgin appears inside an almond-shaped halo, 'mandorla' in Italian. But the mystery of this stop is a little higher up.

1A bull on the cathedral

If you scan the capitals along this side, close to the door, you will spot a bull's head emerging from the stone and staring down at the street. It is not a usual religious symbol, which is exactly why Florentines went looking for an explanation.

2Two stories for one head

The most sensible explanation is a tribute to the draught animals. For decades, oxen and bulls hauled stone and marble to the building site and powered the hoists that lifted the materials.

Legend prefers scandal: a master builder was having an affair with the wife of a baker who lived opposite. The husband reported them, and the lover took revenge by placing the horned head facing his window.

In Italian, 'mettere le corna', to give someone horns, means to cheat on them. In some versions the husband is a tailor rather than a baker, and none of them is backed by documents. What we do know is that this doorway was a sculpture workshop for more than thirty years, between 1391 and 1423, and that Donatello and Nanni di Banco worked on it.

3What to look for

  • The bull's head up high, near the door.
  • The Annunciation mosaic, by the Ghirlandaio brothers (1489-1490).
  • The relief of the Virgin in the mandorla, by Nanni di Banco.
North side of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with the dome behind
The north flank of the cathedral, where the bull's head is hidden.

Documented

The Porta della Mandorla was decorated between 1391 and 1423, with Nanni di Banco's Assumption relief and the Ghirlandaio mosaic of 1489-1490; the bull's head is on the north side, near the door.

Oral tradition

The master builder's revenge on the betrayed husband is a folk legend with no documentary support; the tribute to the draught animals is a plausible reading, but it is not documented either.

Sources and credits

Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, official website of the Duomo; Charles Seymour, studies on the Porta della Mandorla («Art Bulletin», 1959); Italian Wikipedia, «Porta della Mandorla».

Photos:

  • The Porta della Mandorla on the north side of Florence Cathedral: sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • North side of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with the dome behind: Zairon, CC BY 4.0.

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