GATES OF PARADISE

Italian Porta Del Paradiso, the pair of gilded bronze doors (142552) designed by the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti for the east entrance of the Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. Each wing of the Gates of Paradise contains five rectangular reliefs of scenes from the Old Testament between figurated borders containing statuettes in niches and medallions with busts. The entire surface of the doors is gilt. The classically modeled figures within the reliefs are placed in landscapes or in perspectivally rendered architecture to suggest a greater depth to the reliefs than actually exists. The 10 relief panels are among the greatest works of Early Renaissance sculpture. They demonstrate the mastery of linear perspective and the classical idiom achieved in Florence by the early 15th century.