The Origins of Renaissance Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence

For almost any student of art history, ""the baptistery doors"" will bring to mind the striated marble hexagon of Florence's Baptistery of San Giovanni. Even without including Brunelleschi's failed (but still surviving) entries into the Baptistery competition, The Origins of Renaissance Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence includes some of the crucial watersheds of Renaissance art. The Italian minister of culture, Antonio Paolucci, offers a heavily illustrated panel-by-panel review of the iconographic programs of Andrea Pisano's doors showing the 20 episodes of the life of John the Baptist; Lorenzo Ghiberti's first doors depicting events in the life of Christ, the Evangelist and the church fathers; and Ghiberti's later Gates of Paradise with their 10 panels describing scenes from the Old Testament.