Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Vita

So thanks to the patient scholars who, you know, get grants to spend years of their life sorting through 500-year-old receipts, we know that Niccolo received his final payment for the sculpture on April 8th, 1463.

Today you enter the church of Santa Maria della Vita on a narrow street.

You buy a ticket.

There's a little gift shop there.

While, you know, today modern viewers were used to movies and videos, so I think that we actually find the unpainted clay, the raw surface, to be much more effective in But to the 15th century viewer, that painted surface would have resonated with them in a completely different way.

So that fish market entrance doorway, it wasn't just for the fish market.

It was also the main entrance to the hospital that was run by the confraternity of Santa Maria della Vita.

The confraternity was a flagellant brotherhood, battuti.