The pastorale, symbol of the bishop's power, was probably made for the first bishop of the diocese, Giovanni Cinughi de'Pazzi, elected on the 29th of August, 1462. Scholars debate about the author: probably he was a Florentine goldsmith familiar to Brunelleschi's architecture and Donatello's sculpture; otherwise he could have been a capable Sienese artist, Piero d'Antonio.The Annunciation in the curl would seem to indicate a different hand, because of its contraced figures in an anti-classical style.
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