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Fireplace
Pietra serena sandstone, 238X295x25 cm; Inv. n. 199
The creation of the fireplace, which around 1480 decorated the current City Hall, then residence of the Manfredi family, can be traced to the Florentine workshop of Desiderio and Geri da Settignano.
The grandiose fireplace in pietra serena sandstone bears simple and harmonious architectural lines and is decorated with festooned candelabras on the sides. In the centre is a lovely circular festoon with a lamb tied to the column, against which the mouth of Aeolus is blowing, lifting up vortices of leafy volutes. It is possible that this symbol represents the undertakings of Carlo II Manfredi Lord of Faenza from 1468 to 1477.
To the sides are two putti, winged and well-formed, holding a garland similar to those of the Spinelli portal in the Basilica di Santa Croce in Florence. On the outer parts, there is a heraldic coat-of-arms of the Manfredi family, with the lancet for bloodletting, the cord used as a tourniquet for finding the vein before cutting, and at the top the wound of open vein dripping blood.
Overall, this fireplace is similar to the one found in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which is also attributed to Desiderio da Settignano.