Florentine sculptor and architect Arnolfo di Cambio…

Florentine sculptor and architect Arnolfo di Cambio creates the tomb of Cardinal Guillaume de Braye following the latter’s death on 1282 in San Domenico at Orvieto.

The massive structure, with its clarity of line, testifies to Arnolfo’s familiarity with both classical and French Gothic art.

It includes an enthroned Madonna (a Maestà) for which he took as a model an ancient Roman statue of the goddess Abundantia; the Madonna's tiara and jewels reproduce antique models.

As proved by restorations, the statues of the Madonna is in fact a second-century BCE Roman sculpture.

One of the first churches of the Dominican Order, the edifice has a nave and two aisles; what remains today are only the apse and the transept, after most of the church was demolished in 1932 to house the Female Academy of Gymnastics.