This image released by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore on Thursday, May 23, 2024, shows a terracotta portrait of Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect of Florence’s historic cathedral, dating from the early Renaissance period, which was recently found among the furnishings of a historic residence near the Tuscan capital. | Photo credit: AP

An unidentified terracotta statue of the famous early Renaissance architect who designed the dome of Florence Cathedral was unveiled on May 23 in the Tuscan capital, where it will be permanently displayed after restoration.

The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the entity charged with preserving the historic cathedral and running its museum, called the discovery after nearly 700 years of a terracotta statue depicting Filippo Brunelleschi “extraordinary.”

It notes the artistic value and rarity of depictions made at or after the famous architect’s death in 1446.

Brunelleschi’s dome and Giotto’s campanile of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Flower are painted from a panoramic point of Florence in Tuscany, Italy. file | Photo credit: Reuters

Art historians Giancarlo Gentilini and Alfredo Bellandi identified the sculpture as a model by Andrea di Lazzaro Cavalcanti for the marble statue of Brunelleschi in the Monument to the Virgin in Florence Cathedral.

Mr. Bellandi praised the work’s “extremely expressive naturalism.”

Experts said Brunelleschi’s adopted son and successor Cavalcanti carved this lifelike statue from a nearly solid block of clay as early as 1447, before completing the monument later that year.

The cathedral’s guardianship unit said the terracotta model was stored for a period in the sculptor’s workshop for study, while its state of conservation indicated it had been preserved for a long time before “subsequently falling into oblivion”.

The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore has purchased this terracotta statue for 300,000 euros (about $324,000). After restoration work on the scratches and removal of chalk residues and traces of paint, it will be displayed in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, located near the cathedral.