Paradise comes to America

Ghiberti's "Gates of Paradise", that is:

The early-Renaissance sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti spent 27 years creating the monumental gilded bronze doors for the eastern portal of the Baptistery in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence. And it has taken teams of conservators just about as long to restore them. . .

Now three of the newly restored panels are scheduled to tour North America for the first time, traveling to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta in April, and then to the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. . .

The three panels on the North American tour are from the left door. They depict the stories of Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau, and Saul and David. There will also be four sculpture relief elements — two prophets’ heads and two standing figures — from the original frame of the left door.

Full article in the NY Times. Note that if you search for pictures online under "Gates of Paradise", more often than not you will get pictures of the copies that have now been in place on the Baptistery for some decades -- long enough to show their own share of dirt and damage from atmospheric pollution.

Posted by David on October 16, 2006 11:13 AM