Scholars have called the work among the greatest creations of Renaissance art. Michelangelo went so far as to call it “divine.”
The stunning masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance known as “The Gates of Paradise” will be on view in Seattle as part of the work’s first and only North American tour.
These gates are made up of three newly restored original panels from the doors of the Baptistery in Florence done by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The exhibition marks the first time the panels have ever traveled to the United States since their creation more than 550 years ago. They will be on view starting Saturday and through April 6 at Seattle Art Museum.
The Gates will be on display at about the same time as “Roman Art from the Louvre,” on view through May 11. This is an exhibition of the Louvre’s Roman masterworks.
“The Gates of Paradise” was Ghiberti’s first important commission as a young artist.
Ghiberti, a goldsmith, sculptor, architect and writer, won his commission by submitting a panel representing Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac.
Scholars have quoted Ghiberti saying in his autobiography, written in the 1440s, that he worked on the “Gates” with “the greatest diligence and the greatest love.”
Ghiberti worked on the project from 1403 to 1424, about 21 years.
According to press material from Seattle Art Museum, the panels display a compelling portrayal of scenes from the Old Testament. Installed in the eastern portal of the Florentine Baptistery, the artwork was so admired by Michelangelo that he dubbed them the “Gates of Paradise,” scholars have said.
Chiyo Ishikawa, SAM’s deputy director of art and curator of European painting and sculpture, called these brilliantly gilded bronze doors “an icon of Renaissance art and a touchstone of civic and religious life in Florence.”
On view will be three panels from the left door of the “Gates”: showing stories of Adam and Eve, Jacob and Esau, and Saul and David as well as two prophets and two idealized heads from the doors’ intricate frame. The exhibition also highlights Ghiberti’s creation of the monumental doors and reveals important new findings made during their 25-year restoration, including such new information as:
The massive door frames, whose fronts and backs were previously thought to have been cast separately, were each cast in a single piece.
Ghiberti cast the panels in a distinctive bronze alloy that lent itself to meticulous finishing and gilding.
Ghiberti created dozens of unique tools to finish and detail the figures and backgrounds of the reliefs after they were cast.
The workmanship and bronze shims used to install the panels in the matrix of the framework were so precise and tight that it took more than five years of continuous work for specialists to remove four of the panels and eight frieze elements.
After completing the first set of doors in 1424, Ghiberti then received the commission for another set, this time without a competition. Using the lost wax technique, Ghiberti cast the doors in bronze and then gilded the entire surface of the reliefs to create various pictorial effects and emphasize perspective, a news release said.
“What a great opportunity for our community to see … supreme examples of Roman and Renaissance art. The original panels from Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise will never travel again,” said Mimi Gates, SAM director.
Reporter Theresa Goffredo: 425-339-3424 or goffredo@heraldnet.com
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