Gates of Paradise touring the U.S. - Gadling: "The gates are actually bronze doors attached to the front of San Gionvanni but they are unlike any doors I'd ever seen before. I learned about them in school from an overzealous Western Civ teacher who could not stop singing praises about the gates and as a result, I was anxious to see them. Even with such high expectations, however, the gates simply blew me away with their golden biblical depictions carved by sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti in the 15th century. Wow. I stood there in front of the gates all by myself and just soaked it all in. And now you can do the same without actually visiting Florence. That's because three of the ten panels which make up the gates are currently on tour in the United States. They will be on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until January 14, and will then travel to the Seattle Art Museum until April 6, 2008."
Michelangelo likened the gilded bronze doors of Florence's Baptistery of San Giovanni to the "Gates of Paradise." The phrase stuck, for reasons that anyone who has seen them will understand. Combining a goldsmith's delicacy with a foundryman's bravura, sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti condensed the Old Testament into ten panels to produce one of the defining masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Since their installation in 1452, the doors have withstood a variety of near-biblical catastrophes: a torrential flood, vandalism, overzealous polishing and caustic air pollution. When the doors were finally removed for restoration from the facade of the 11th-century octagonal Baptistery in 1990, they looked dull and grimy. But the worst damage was occurring almost invisibly. Diagnostic studies revealed that fluctuations in humidity were causing unstable oxides on the bronze beneath the gilding to dissolve and recrystallize, creating minute craters and blisters on the gold surface.
No comments:
Post a Comment