Giovanni di Balduccio and assistants, Votive statues from Ticinese Gate, marble, 1336-1338 (inv. n. 751 bis, 752 bis, 753 bis, 754 bis, 755 bis)

Milan's medieval city walls, reconstructed after 1171, were embellished with a particular decoration: that of a series of statues placed at the top of the main city gates and commissioned by Azzone and da Giovanni Visconti between 1336 and the mid 1300s. A Tuscan, Giovanni di Balduccio, was commissioned to design the entire sculptural series, but his signature is visible only in a few of the figures. The sculptures survived the walls themselves and at the beginning of the 19th century were added to the Museum's collection, starting from those of the Eastern Gate, which was demolished in 1818. The addition of five statues from the Ticinese Gate, substituted in 1961 by marble copies, is more recent. As is the Madonna on Throne with Child, and Saint Ambrose proposing the sestiere, which appears among the other sculptural groups. The Ticinese Gate also included the statues of Saint Peter Martyr, Saint Lawrence and Saint Eustorgius, representing the most important churches of this area of Milan.