Florence: The Silver Altar of St. John's Treasure

A few hundred kilos of silver, in addition to gilding and highly refined enamels, were used to create the silver Altar and the Cross of the Treasure of St. John, one of the masterpieces of goldsmithing of all time. Created between 1367 and 1483 and destined for the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence, it is now kept in the Museum of the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the rich Guild of Merchants commissioned some of the greatest artists of the period to do the work: fourteenth-century Florentine masters such as Leonardo di Ser Giovanni, Antonio di Salvi and Francesco di Giovanni worked on the front. The statue of the saint in the centre is the work by Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. Therefore, this reredos represents an extraordinary synthesis of the main trends in Florentine goldsmithing and sculpture between the Gothic and the Renaissance.