Altar Frontal with the Coronation of the Virgin, Eight Angels and Fourteen Saints

Look at the backgrounds of the niches behind the saints. Each is stitched with a small repeating emblem that tells you who stands there. Scallop shells mark Saint James, lilies John the Baptist, the protector of Florence, and fish Saint Andrew. Faces, folds and shadows were all worked with the needle, in coloured silk on linen with gold and silver thread, in the Florentine technique called opus florentinum, which let cloth imitate the modelling of a panel painting. The embroiderer, Jacopo di Cambio, signed it and dated it 1336. The design is usually credited to the painter Jacopo del Casentino. On major feasts the frontal hung before the high altar of Santa Maria Novella. The narrow band along the top holds 11 scenes from the Virgin's life between 12 saints, and parts of the embroidery were made good in the 18th century.