Baptistry of St John - East Portal

(Local Name: Porta del Paradiso) Ghiberti adopted an entirely new approach when he came to design his greatest work, the east portal. Michelangelo considered it worthy to serve as the Gate of Paradise - hence "Porta del Paradiso" - and Ghiberti himself sang its praises by adding "mira arte fabricatum" (made with admirable art) on the right-hand door next to his signature. In 1990 the original door was replaced by a replica and can now be admired in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo.

Nowhere else has a sculptor expressed himself in bronze as perfectly as in this door, created between 1425 and 1452. The ten separate panels contain reliefs of scriptural subjects. The framing incorporates figures of prophets and sibyls and portrait medallions, including one of Ghiberti himself (fourth from the top in the middle row on the left). The beauty and mastery of the finely delineated perspectives, the three-dimensional levels of representation, the individual characterisation of the figures, the meaningful composition of the groupings, all combine in the consummate perfection of the whole. From top left to bottom right the panels depict:

Adam and Eve: creation, fall, expulsion from Paradise;

Cain and Abel: sacrifice by Cain and Abel, death of Abel, punishment of Cain;

Noah: his sacrifice, departure from the Ark, his drunkenness;

Abraham and Isaac: angel appearing to Abraham, Isaac's sacrifice;

Jacob and Esau: birth of Esau and Jacob, selling the birthright, Esau hunting, Rebecca, Isaac's betrayal;

Joseph: selling of Joseph, Benjamin, Joseph and his brothers;

Moses: Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai;

Joshua: the Jews before Jericho, encampment, the walls come tumbling down when the trumpets sound;

Saul and David: battle with the Philistines, slaying of Goliath;

Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

This door rightly has the place of honor opposite the Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore.