Baptistery of san giovanni doors

The Gates of Paradise

According to Vasari, Michelangelo named them the Gates of Paradise: “they are so beautiful that they would befit the gates of paradise.” Ghiberti spent 27 years crafting them in bronze and gold. When the patrons saw the beauty, they placed them honored on the eastern side, facing the Cathedral, the Paradisium.

The Gates of Paradise became visible to the public in late 2012 at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo after an unparalleled 27-year restoration, saving the gilding from certain destruction. Directed and executed by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure of Florence, commissioned by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, the restoration was made possible through funding from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and the contribution of the Friends of Florence Association.

Weighing 8 tons, standing at 5 meters and 20 centimeters high, and 3 meters and 10 centimeters wide, with a thickness of 11 centimeters, the Gates of Paradise were placed inside a specially designed case.

Commissioned in 1425 by the powerful Arte di Calimala, just a year after completing the previous set, Ghiberti undertook an epic venture. From 1426 to 1452, the project engaged Ghiberti with collaborators like Donatello, Michelozzo, Luca della Robbia, Benozzo Gozzoli, and Bernardo Cennini.

Unlike the original plan for three equally sized doors for the Baptistery, Ghiberti radically changed the project with the Gates of Paradise. He eliminated the Gothic quatrefoils, reducing the panels to 10. Each panel depicts various episodes from the Old Testament, with an additional frieze featuring 48 elements portraying heads and full figures of prophets and sibyls, including Ghiberti’s self-portrait.

Baptistery of san giovanni doors – The North Doors

Considered the work that opened the Renaissance era in Florence, the North Doors of the Baptistery are the second set in chronological order (1402-1424), following Andrea Pisano’s (1330-1336) and preceding the Gates of Paradise (1425-1452). The wealthy Merchants’ Guild, the Arte di Calimala, originally intended to commission the Baptistery doors sequentially. However, due to various events, including the plague of 1348, the project was halted and resumed in 1400, with a competition for the second set.

Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, Simone da Colle, Niccolò d’Arezzo, Jacopo della Quercia, Francesco di Valdambrino, and Niccolò Lamberti participated in the competition. They were asked to create a relief on the theme of the Sacrifice of Isaac within a year. Lorenzo di Bartoluccio Ghiberti, also known as “Nencio,” won the competition at 23, working on the Baptistery doors for the rest of his life, becoming rich and famous.

Similar in monumental dimensions to the Gates of Paradise, each of the two panels of the North Doors measures 3 meters in width by 5 meters in height, with each door weighing over 4 tons, totaling approximately 9 tons. Ghiberti’s style evolved over more than twenty years of work from Gothic in the early scenes to Renaissance in the later ones.

Baptistery of san giovanni doors – The South Doors

The oldest of the three Baptistery doors in Florence is credited to the renowned 14th-century sculptor Andrea Pisano. Created between 1330 and 1336, the South Doors, originally located eastward facing the Cathedral, were replaced first by the North Doors and later by the Gates of Paradise. This monumental work in bronze and gold, weighing about 8 tons and standing at 4 meters and 94 centimeters in height and 2.95 meters in width, showcases meticulous attention to detail, even in areas not visible to the naked eye.

Andrea Pisano, the “master of doors” in contemporary documents, collaborated with the Venetian Leonardo di Avanzo on the complex casting of the door frames. Executing 28 panels with 20 episodes from the life of St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of the Baptistery and Florence, and eight emblematic figures, Pisano’s work follows a specific reading order from top to bottom and left to right.

The left panel depicts scenes related to St. John’s role as a prophet, while the right panel portrays his martyrdom. Pisano drew inspiration from the Baptistery’s mosaic cycle and Giotto’s frescoes in the Peruzzi Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence.

The 28 panels are interspersed with 74 friezes, each adorned with alternating rosettes and diamonds. At the apex of the quatrefoils containing the scenes are 48 lion heads. The artist’s signature is found at the top of the door: “ANDREAS UGOLINI NINI DE PISIS ME FECIT A.D.M.CCC.XXX” (Andrea, son of Ugolino, son of Nino of Pisa, made me in the year of our Lord 1330).

The style of the late Giotto is evident in Andrea’s figures and compositions. It’s plausible that the great master may have designed some scenes or, at the very least, provided insights for the spatial and narrative organization of individual panels and the creation of figures.

Andrea Pisano played a crucial role in major sculptural endeavors in Florence. Alongside Giotto, he created 48 panels out of 52 for the Campanile of the Cathedral (now visible in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo). After Giotto died in 1337, Pisano oversaw the construction of the building itself.