Detail View: ADJUNCT MODULE D: WORLD ART: Florence Baptistery; East Doors [original doors]
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Collection:
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ADJUNCT MODULE D: WORLD ART
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Preferred Title:
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Florence Baptistery; East Doors [original doors]
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Alternate Title:
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Gates of Paradise
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Image View:
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Detail, figure in a border niche above a decorative head
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Creator:
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Lorenzo Ghiberti (Italian sculptor, ca.1381-1455)
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Location:
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repository: Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence, Tuscany, Italy)
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Location Note:
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Piazza del Duomo, 9
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GPS:
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+43.772333+11.256222
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Date:
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1425-1452 (creation)
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Cultural Context:
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Italian
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Style Period:
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Fifteenth century; Renaissance
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Work Type 1:
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relief (sculpture)
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Work Type 2:
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door
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Work Type 3:
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bas-relief (sculpture)
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Classification:
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Sculpture and Installations
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Material:
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bronze; gold leaf
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Technique:
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casting (process); gilding (technique)
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Measurements:
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599 cm (height) x 462 cm (width)
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Subjects:
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Old Testament and Apocrypha; Abraham (Biblical patriarch); David, King of Israel; Moses (Biblical leader)
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Description:
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In 1425 Ghiberti received the commission for the final set of doors. The Gothic quatrefoil and the distinction between the dark background and the gilt figures were this time abandoned; in contrast, the new doors had ten large, squarish, totally gilded reliefs, each containing several related Old Testament episodes. Through gilding, the use of Albertian perspective and gradation of relief (diminishing as forms recede), Ghiberti achieved a convincing illusion of spatial depth and narrative continuity. The doors (completed 1452) made such a strong impression on the artist's contemporaries that his earlier set was transferred to the north entrance and the new doors were installed on the east façade, facing the cathedral. According to Vasari, Michelangelo, in a play on the word paradiso (the area between a baptistery and a cathedral façade), claimed that Ghiberti's doors were worthy to be the 'Gates of Paradise'. The doors were moved inside the museum in 1990. (Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/)
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Collection:
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Archivision Adjunct Module D: World Art
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Identifier:
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6A1-GL-BEO-C39
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Rights:
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© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
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