From 21 December 2005 to 21 April 2006, Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence. Important period of exhibition events dedicated to great individuals who have characterized the artistic and architectural history of their time. One of the most important artist of the 13th and 14th century, the great architect and sculptor Arnolfo di Cambio, left the fundamental imprint of his genius in Florence. Florence is for this reason getting ready to celebrate him with great exhibition. There is also another exhibition dedicated to Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), theorist, architect and writer of treatises, active in numerous Italian centers. "The arts of the Renaissance between reason and beauty", which will take place at Palazzo Strozzi from March 11th to July 23rd, 2006.

Arnolfo di Cambio
Sculptor and architect, born in Colle di Val d'Elsa 1245, died in Florence between 1301-10. Who Arnolfo was seems to be hardly known; the father of Arnolfo was called Cambio, and came from Colle di Val d'Elsa. Arnolfo was student of journeyman of Nicolo Pisano, under whose direction works between 1265 and 1268 to Arca di San Domenico in Saint Domenico to Bologna and to the Pulpit of the Dome of Siena. When Arnolfo was thirty, he had already attained high repute, having studied the art of design under Cimabue for the purpose of employing it in sculpture. He was already considered the best architect in Tuscany when the Florentines confided to him the construction of the exterior circle of their city walls; they also erected after his plans the Loggia of San Michele, their corn-market, covering it with a simple roof, and building the piers of brick. The year when the cliff of the Magnoli, undermined by water, crumbled away on the side of San Giorgio, the Florentines issued a decree that no building should be thence-forth erected on this perilous site. In this regulation they followed Arnolfo's advice. His judgment has been proved correct by the ruin of many grandiose houses and buildings in later times. Arnolfo is recognized as the prominent architect of his era. In 1296 he was in charge of construction of the cathedral in Florence, in fact, he already elaborated a plan of the next Dome in short to that one then realized, concentrating itself however on the facade, of which it succeeded in to realize the first three registries. Of the design executed from Bernardino Poccetti is document (the Archives of the Work of the Dome) in 1587 at the moment of the destruction of the facade that was adorned of mosaics and sculptures. The statues however have been conserved in museums and private collections; (Nativita, Madonna in throne, Bonifacio VIII, Apostles and Deacons); let alone to Berlin, National museums (Dormitio Virginis) and to Cambridge UK. Arnolfo had a hand in designing other major buildings in Florence, including the baptistery, the Palazzo Vecchio and the Church of Santa Croce. The monumental character of Arnolfo's work has left its mark on the appearance of Florence. The first major work of Arnolfo in Rome was tomb of Riccardo Cardinal Annibaldi, at St. John Lateran 1276. His sculpture work includes: Statue of Robert Anjou 1277, fountain of the Thirsty People in Perugia, tomb of Cardinal de Braye in San Domenico, Orvieto 1282. These works became the model for Gothic funerary art.