Lorenzo Ghilberti's famous bronze Baptistry doors were commissioned in 1401 to mark the city's deliverance from the plague.

Ghilberti was chosen to make a set of new doors after a competition that involved seven leading artists;including Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia and Brunelleschi. Having spent 21 years working on the North Doors, Ghilberti was co mmissioned to make the East Doors (1424 -1452).

The trial panels by Ghilberti and Brunelleschi are often regarded as the first works of the Renaissance.

The doors were enthusiastically named by Michelangelo as the "Gates of Paradise". The original ten relief panels showing scriptural subjects are now exhibited in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo.

BAPTISTRY