FLANKING the entrance to the choir of Volterra cathedral are two kneeling angels carrying candlesticks (Figs.2 and 3). Now balanced on top of intricately carved spiral columns, they originally formed part of the tabernacle for the reser- vation of the Eucharist that Mino da Fiesole made between 1467 and 1471 (Fig.1). After a chequered history - it was dismantled in 1590, abandoned in a storeroom for 240 years, and reconstructed in the Baptistery of Volterra in 1837 - the tabernacle finally returned in 1937 to the place for which it was made, the cathedral's high altar.

TWO years ago I was for.tunate enough to find in a store- room of the confraternity of S. Francesco Poverino in Piazza SS. Annunziata, Florence, a hitherto unpublished crucifix which immediately seemed to me to be related to the work of Andrea del Verrocchio. Photographs taken before, during and after the restoration that followed this discovery (Figs. 15, 1 7, 18, 20, 26 and 28) reveal the quality of a sculp- ture which had remained almost totally overlooked. This article seeks to present some preliminary conclusions about its authorship, which strongly suggest that it may be one of the 'Crucssi di legno' mentioned by Vasari as having been made by Verrocchio, of which no convincing example has ever before come to light.

' mentioned by Vasari as having been made by Verrocchio, of which no convincing example has ever before come to light.

THE exhibition of Italian sculpture from the Hermitage shown in Rome and Venice in 1991-92 provided an oppor- tunity to reconsider a terracotta statuette of a headless man on horseback (Figs.30 and 31) which, as we hope to demon- strate, can be identiSed as an early project for a monument to Peter the Great.

BY the outbreak of the First World War Rodinrs status in Great Britain had reached unprecedented heights: his repu- tation was greater than that of any other sculptor and his enthusiastic acceptance by fellow artists and art students as well as by art lovers and British high society led hirn to donate a major representative selection of his works to the British nation in 1 914. How did a foreign sculptor come to achieve this unique position?

THE 'Constantine Bowl' in the British WIuseum has often been described as a forgery, and was exhibited as such in the exhibition Fake: The Art of Deception held at the Museum in 1990. This note presents new historical and technical evidence to suggest that this conclusion is incorrect, and that the bowl is a genuine Late Byzantine product. It is exhibited as such in the Museum's current exhibition, Byzantium.

Byzantium.

THE origins of the motifs in Brunelleschi's Sacrfrice of Isaac (Fig.5 1), made in 1401-02 as a competition entry for the bronze doors of the Baptistery in Florence, have been the object of much discus- sion. Most scholars have concentrated on their classical sources: the posture of the servant on the left taken from the Spinario, or the figure of Isaac which may have been inspired by a relief on the Arch of Constantine. To the best of my knowledge no one has noted that Brunelleschi's relief also contains a motif (Fig.54) that copies in reverse a sculpture (Figs.52 and 55) by the workshop of Arnolfo di Cambio, then situated on the fagade of Florence Cathedral.

(Fig.5 1), made in 1401-02 as a competition entry for the bronze doors of the Baptistery in Florence, have been the object of much discus- sion. Most scholars have concentrated on their classical sources: the posture of the servant on the left taken from the Spinario, or the figure of Isaac which may have been inspired by a relief on the Arch of Constantine. To the best of my knowledge no one has noted that Brunelleschi's relief also contains a motif (Fig.54) that copies in reverse a sculpture (Figs.52 and 55) by the workshop of Arnolfo di Cambio, then situated on the fagade of Florence Cathedral.

FACTS from the life ofthe Medicean sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni (d.1491) continue to emerge bit by bit. Even as my 1992 mono- graph was in press, F.W. Kent reproduced in these pages a letter reporting that the cause of Bertoldo's death was quinsey, a partic- ularly violent form of tonsilitis, and that Lorenzo the Magnificent grieved at his familiar's passing. As if to underscore this, a second document advanced by Kent shows that the NIedici bank bore part of the funeral expenses. Kent's second document also demon- strates that Bertoldo's mother was still alive, attending to details of the Masses that were to be said for the repose of his soul in S. Lorenzo. This is of much interest as it raises reasonable doubts as to Vasari's statement that when he died Bertoldo was 'so old that he could no longer work'.

AS Gino Corti has recently pointed out in an article on the Florentine founder and sculptor, Zanobi di Bernardo Lastricati (1508-90), artists working in the shadow of more celebrated figures are all too frequently ignored by art historians. Yet a closer study of the activites of the 'second rank' of artists, such as Lastricati himself, can contribute much to our understanding of the broader artistic scene in a given period, highlighting the importance of the technical assistance that such artist/ craftsmen provided in the production of works of art.

SUCH has been written on the restoration of S. Maria della Pace carried out for Pope Alexander VII by Pietro da Cortona, but this has concentrated on the architecture of the church as a whole and the brilliant solution of the problem caused by the small space originally in front of the church. Less attention has been paid to the chapel that was completely restructured for the Pope's own benefit below Raphael's fresco of the Sibyls (Fig.60), and for the attribution of the sculpture that decorates it later writers have relied on the information provided by Titi.

(Fig.60), and for the attribution of the sculpture that decorates it later writers have relied on the information provided by Titi.