PACIO and GIOVANNI da FIRENZE — Florentine sculptors, recorded as active in Naples in 1343, engaged on the mausoleum of Roberto I d'Angiò il Savio, in the church of S. Chiara.
The mausoleum, of incomparable solemnity, consists of a spacious Gothic canopy, resting on clustered piers divided by polygonal rings, between whose piers and pinnacles stands an entire series of patriarchs, prophets, and saints. The sarcophagus, supported by piers against which are set the statues of six Virtues, bears on its front and sides figures of the King and his relatives; upon it, within the funerary chamber, whose curtains are held raised by two angels, lies the recumbent statue of the King, clad in the Franciscan habit and watched over by the seven Arts of the trivium and quadrivium. Above, beneath the canopy, is the King seated on a faldstool, his face reflecting the death mask, with painted figures of prelates and barons; still higher, the Virgin with s. Francesco and s. Chiara, and at her feet the King.
The grandiose ensemble follows the type established by Tino di Camaino, enriched, however, in its plastic treatment according to the manner of Nino Pisano.
P. and G. are also responsible for the tomb of Ludovico da Durazzo, in the same church, and probably for the old altar of the church of S. Chiara; whereas the reliefs of the legend of s. Caterina are not their work.