The Door To Enlightenment

Gates of Paradise, Florence Baptistry by Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Florence Baptistry is a religious building in Florence, Italy, and is renowned for its three sets of artistically important bronze doors with relief sculptures by Lorenzo Ghiberti. These doors were dubbed by Michelangelo, "the Gates of Paradise," because of their beauty. The Italian poet, Dante Alighieri and many famed artists and leaders of the Renaissance, including members of the Medici family, were baptized there.

In 1401, a competition was announced by the Wool Merchants' Guild to design the baptistry's north doors. The existing north doors had been built as an offering to spare Florence from the scourge of the Black Plague which ravaged the city in 1348. Seven sculptors competed, including Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Donatello, with 21 year-old Ghiberti winning the commission. At the time of judging, only Ghiberti and Brunelleschi were finalists, and when the judges could not decide, they were assigned to work together on the doors. Brunelleschi's pride forced him to abandon Ghiberti who then worked on the doors alone.

It took the young sculptor 21 years to complete the doors. The gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty depicting a biblical scene from the Old Testament. The lower eight panels show the four evangelists and Church Fathers, Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory, and Saint Augustine. The doors have been described as being the most important event in the history of Florentine art in the first quarter of the 15th century.

Michelangelo referred to these doors as "undeniably perfect in every way and must rank as the finest masterpiece every created."

And thus was born the Renaissance.

Just paint it!