Cantoria Frieize

This relief is part of the Cantoria, or Singing Gallery, created for the organ loft in Florence Cathedral. Instead of housing the organ, it eventually served as a home for the choir singers during services. The Cantoria is the first documented work of Luca della Robbia (1399/1400-1482). His ten panels depict the 150th Psalm, which refer to different ways of praising the Lord. Two years after he started his commission, Donatello was commissioned to create another cantoria to complement della Robbia's. The della Robbia Cantoria originally hung above the door to the North Sacristy and Donatello's above the door to the South Sacristy, but both were dismantled in 1688 and later moved to the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo.