Baptistry of St John - North Portal

In 1401 Lorenzo Ghiberti beat six others (including Brunelleschi and Jacopo della Quercia) to win the competition for the north portal. From 1403 to 1424 Ghiberti worked on the bronze doors with his assistants (Masolino, Donatello, Paolo Uccello, Bernardo Ciuffagni, Bernardo Cennini) and in doing so adhered closely to Andrea Pisano's design for the south portal: 28 square panels each with a Gothic relief, twenty of them scenes of the Life of Christ and eight of them the figures of the four Evangelists and four Early Fathers of the Latin Church. His work, however, far excels that of Pisano in the grace of the figures and the liveliness of expression. Ghiberti's difference of approach, while still keeping to the traditional forms, is particularly evident in the vivid scenes of the "Resurrection" (right-hand door, top row, left), the "Baptism" and the "Temptation of Jesus" (left-hand door, fourth row down, left and right), the "Nativity" (left-hand door, fifth row down, right) and "Christ among the Doctors" (right-hand door, fifth row down, right).

Ghiberti also designed the bronze framing of the portal from which small heads protrude at every intersection.