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Battistero del Duomo
Battistero del Duomo (Piazza del Duomo)
The octagonal baptistery stands in ornamental and geometrical sobriety opposite the entrance to the Duomo. Dated somewhere between the end of the ninth and the start of the 10th century, it was considered to be the most beautiful monument, not just in the city, but in the entire world during the Middle Ages when the white and green marble was added to its exterior. The bronze doors date to the 14th and 15th centuries, their creation interrupted by the financial crisis and Black Plague in the 14th century.
The South Door, mostly illustrating scenes from the life of St John the Baptist (patron saint of the city), was the first to be added by Andrea Pisano between 1330 and 1336 when it was thought that the wooden doors were no longer worthy of an otherwise lavish baptistery. Ghiberti, with the help of apprentices such as Donatello, created the North Door to the same 28-panel design after beating greats such as Brunelleschi in a general design free-for-all in 1401. But it took him 20 years to accomplish the reliefs, hence there are some quite obvious changes in style. On its completion, Ghiberti was immediately commissioned to do the East Door (facing the Duomo), which an impressed Michelangelo named “The Gates of Paradise.” The panels here depicting scenes from the Old Testament are reproductions; the originalsare on display in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.
Once inside, run your eyes up the ancient Roman columns from the zodiac-decorated floor to discover one of the most important medieval mosaics in Italy. This cupola ceiling is magnificently decorated with narratives from Genesis, the story of Joseph, the life of Christ and that of St John the Baptist with a particularly bleak The Last Judgment shown below a glorious Jesus.
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