The series of stunning marble reliefs with which the artisan Luca della Robbia (c. 1400–1482) decorated his fifteenth-century organ loft were never meant to serve as historical artifacts. To their Florentine creator, they were simply spirited youths engaged in musical activities intended to adorn the front of his cantoria—the name by which the organ loft would subsequently become known on account of its eventual use as a singing gallery. The project, Luca’s first known commission, was begun in 1431 and would take the better part of the next seven years to complete. When finished, the cantoria would be installed within the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, the Florentine Duomo.

Whatever thoughts Luca may have harbored about his marble youths or his personal contribution to the Duomo have long been lost to us. Without doubt the sculptor recognized the value of his labor, yet as a hired artisan he might just as easily have considered the fulfillment of the commission but a stepping-stone to the next project. Furthermore, for all his talent and stunning command of his medium, Luca would also have been only too aware that his loft would literally be overshadowed by what was to soar above it, the incomparable dome of Brunelleschi then nearing completion. Today, however, we can appreciate Luca’s gracefully hewn panels not simply for their artistic significance but for what they tell us about musical communication. They are, in essence, time capsules detailing the subtle—and sometimes not-so-subtle—act of rhythmic timekeeping from a distant past.

A member of Florence’s artistic elite whose circle included Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca had more than earned the Duomo commission. In fact, the artist had already proven himself in a completely different medium when, still in his twenties, he collaborated with Ghiberti on the latter’s famous bronze Baptistry doors. Luca then moved on to marble. It was his scenes carved for Giotto’s campanile, the bell tower adjacent to the Duomo, that likely brought the sculptor to the attention of Vieri de’ Medici, a distant relative of the powerful banking dynasty who subsequently commissioned the organ loft.