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Florence Baptistery doors reunited after 30 years

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

13 Dec, 2019

Florence reunites restored Baptistery doors.

The three monumental doors from Florence’s Baptistery have been reunited for the first time in 30 years, following a complex restoration programme which began in 1978, and can now be admired together at the Museo dell'Opera di S. Maria del Fiore.

The three bronze panelled doors were made between 1330 and 1452 and are considered masterpieces of late mediaeval and early Renaissance art.

The doors, which weigh around 8 tons each, are five metres high and three metres wide.

The doors are no longer in their original Baptistery setting - which has replicas in their place - and instead are housed in the museum's Sala del Paradiso for their safe-keeping.

The South Doors were the latest to be restored, in a three-year process whose €1.5 million cost was financed by the Opera di S. Maria del Fiore.

The South Doors date from 1330 to 1336, and were made by Andrea Pisano, a student of Giotto.

Badly damaged during Florence’s 1966 flood, the doors comprise 28 panels, interspersed with 74 friezes, whose gilded details and decorations have now been restored.

Lorenzo Ghiberti created the North and East Doors, the latter of which are known as the 'Gates of Paradise' due to their beauty - a term allegedly coined by Michelangelo.

Restoration work on all three doors was carried out by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence.