The most important mosaics of this period in Italy were those which decorate the tribune of the basilica of St. John Lateran at Rome, executed by Jacobus Toriti between the years 1287 and 1292, and those of the tribune of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, executed also by Toriti during the last few years of the thirteenth century and finished about 1302. The design of the former mosaics is simple in arrangement. On a gold ground, symmetrically arranged, are the figures of six saints and Apostles, with smaller figures of St. Francis and St. Anthony of Padua advancing towards a central cross, from underneath which flows the four rivers of Paradise into the Jordan beneath. Above is the celebrated head of Christ, the face having a benign expression. This was formerly supposed to be of an older creation, but it is quite likely to have been designed by Toriti. The head is surrounded by a plain gold nimbus, and around and above it, on a blue ground with clouds, is a glory of angels in the form of an arc. Below this, on the wall of the tribune, between pointed window openings, Christ and the Apostles are represented on a smaller scale. In the tribune of S. Maria Maggiore the design is grander and more decorative than the St. John Lateran mosaics, and indeed ranks as the finest work of art of its period. In a large central medallion of the apse Christ and the Virgin are enthroned, Christ being represented in the act of crowning the Virgin. A crowd of angels are on either side and at the lower parts of the medallion. The ground of the latter is blue, sown with golden stars; beyond, on either side of the adoring angels, are the upright figures of Apostles and saints on a gold ground, and above them, filling the upper surrounding space, are conventional vines in whose scrolly branches birds of various kinds are found. Below this composition the River Jordan is represented, and the walls of the tribune are occupied with small compositions representing scenes in the life of Christ. In the loggia of the same church are a series of well-designed mosaics inscribed with the name of the artist who designed them—Philippus Rusuti—who is not known with certainty to have executed any other work. They had been formerly ascribed to the Florentine mosaicist Gaddo Gaddi, a friend of Cimabue; he died in 1312. Gaddi, according to Vasari, had been invited to Rome to complete the unfinished mosaics of Toriti at the Church of S. Maria Maggiore after the death of the latter artist, and he occupied himself with the storied mosaics representing the foundation of that church in a series of four compositions. It is still, however, a matter of doubt as to how much of these mosaics belong to the hand of Rusuti or Gaddi. The latter artist executed some subjects in the dome of the Baptistery at Florence, in the Cathedral of Pisa, and the mosaics which decorate the inner lunette in the portal of the Cathedral at Florence.