Keywords

• The cusps of the main apse
• transepts and aisles into the church of Santa Croce in Florence have large panels in the shape of lunettes
• trefoils
• quatrefoils
• triptychs and crosses
• which once were perhaps coloured. The most interesting is the last one
• which specifically evokes the Tuscan wooden and painted crosses
• but at the same time is based on a tradition of architectural crossshaped ornaments in different materials and painted
• like in the church of San Francesco in Bononia. Franciscan brick and marble crosses in Florence and Emilia derived in fact from models in Venice and Ravenna
• and are similar to a monumental cross in the Cistercian Abbey of Staffarda in Piedmont. Arnolfo draws on this tradition to reformulate its architectural language and propose a quasi-experimental model of decoration both painted and carved