Gates of Paradise

Ten square gilded bronze panels of Old Testament scenes, each crowded with figures that shift from near-full relief in the foreground to barely raised distance at the back — pictorial depth achieved in metal. Ghiberti spent twenty-seven years on the east doors of the Florence Baptistery, running a workshop that trained a generation, and Michelangelo reportedly said they were fit to be the gates of paradise. The originals, restored over decades, are now displayed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, with replicas hanging in their place on the Baptistery.