Gates of Paradise

"Gates of Paradise" and the Florentine Baptistery Author(s): Eloise M. Angiola Source: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 60, No. 2 (Jun., 1978), pp. 242-248 Published by: College Art Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3049780 .

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"Gatesof Paradise" andthe FlorentineBaptistery EloiseM. Angiola Ghiberti'sEastDoorsforthe Baptisteryof Florencehavebeen knownsince the sixteenthcenturyas the "Gatesof Paradise" to be foundin a (Fig.1). The originof the nameis supposedly remarkmade by Michelangelo and reportedwith slight variationsin severalearlysources.Vasari's well-knownaccount relatesthat one day,as MichelangelostoodbeforeGhiberti's doors,he wasaskedby a companionwhathe thoughtof them.

Michelangelorepliedthatthe doorswereso beautifulthatthey wereworthyto serveas the Gatesof Paradise.'Legendwould haveit that the namecaughton andthat the EastDoorshave been knownever since as the Gates of Paradise.Recently, scholarshave questionedthe meaningof the Michelangelo legend;they.have identifiedthe sourceof the namein older medievalarchitectural tradition,specifically,in the existence eitherof a paradise-door associatedwith the Cathedralor of a an atriumin frontof the Cathedral.2 paradisus, In fact, the east portalof the Baptisteryreceivedits name neither from Michelangelo'schance remarknor from the or paradisus but ratherbecausein the Middle paradise-door Agesthe Baptistery buildingitselfwasenvisionedas a gateway, a monumentalportalleadingthe baptizedChristianinto the HeavenlyCity.3The imageryderivesfromthe natureof the rite of baptism:it is the sacramentthat washesawaysin, incorporatesthe newly baptizedpersoninto the Christian community,andopensthe portalsof the Kingdom.ofHeaven for him. The conceptappearsfrequentlyin the late Middle Ages; it is expoundedwith great thoroughnessby Saint Thomas Aquinas, for example, and is taken up in papal decretals and conciliar constitutions of the twelfth and thirteenthcenturies.4 A documentof the secondhalf of the thirteenthcentury indicatesthat the Baptisteryof Pisawasknownas the Porta

5 Anotherpieceof evidenceexistsfromPisathat may Paradisi. reaffirmthe identificationof the medievalbaptisterywith a monumentalgateway.The chronicleof BernardoMaragone, writtenat the end of the twelfthcentury,describesthe work that wasaccomplished in the constructionof Pisa'sBaptistery duringthe courseof the year1164.Maragonetells us that on the feastdayof SaintMichaelin that yearthe firstcolumnof the churchof SaintJohnthe Baptistwaserected,andwithin fourteendaysall eightcolumnswereraised,includingone in a singledayat the GoldenGate.6 "GoldenGate"wasthe namegivento the principalportal in the east wall of Jerusalem,which openedinto the Temple Mount(Fig.2). Throughout the MiddleAges, the earthlycity of Jerusalemwas for the Christianthe model and imageof Paradise,the HeavenlyCity.The GoldenGatehadunmistakable associationswith the triumphalentry of Christ into Jerusalemon PalmSundayin fulfillmentof the wordsof the ProphetEzekiel(44:1-3):"Heagainbroughtme roundto the outergateof the sanctuaryfacingeastwards,and it wasshut.

The Lordsaidto me, this gateshallbe keptshut;it mustnot be opened.No manmayenterby it, for the Lordthe God of Israelhas enteredby it. It shall be kept shut. The prince, however,whenhe is hereasprince,maysit thereto eatfoodin the presenceof the Lord;he shallcome in andgo out by the vestibuleof the gate." Duringthe Crusaderoccupationof Jerusalemin the twelfthcentury,the gate, whichpreviously hadbeenwalledupby the Moslems,wasopenedon eachPalm of Christ'sEntryandon September Sundayin commemoration the Feast of the 14, Holy Cross.With the departureof the Crusaders,the gate was once again closed and remainsso today.

Thus, if the medievalbaptisterybuildingis thoughtto be

1G. Vasari, Le vite de'pizieccellentipittori, scultori, ed architettoriscritte da GiorgioVasaripittorearetino, ed. G. Milanesi, Florence, 1878, II, 242-43: "E ben debbe essereveramente lodato Lorenzo,dacche un giorno Michelagnolo Buonarroti fermatosi a veder questo lavoro, e dimandato quel che glie ne paresse, e se queste porte eran belle, rispose: 'Elle son tanto belle, ch'elle starebbon bene alle porte del Paradiso':lode veramente propria, e detta da chi poteva giudicarle." Krautheimer(R. Krautheimerand T. KrautheimerHess, LorenzoGhiberti[PrincetonMonographsin Art and Archaeology,xxxi,], Princeton, 1956, 18) also cites the following sources: E Bocchi, Le bellezze dellacittadi Fiorenza,Florence, 1591, 11-12 (repr. Farnborough,1971); and E L. del Migliore, Firenzecitta nobilissimaillustrata, Florence, 1684, 90 (repr.

Bologna, 1968). I would like to thank the Research Grants Committee of the University of Alabama for a grant I received from them in the summerof 1977 while I was preparingthis study.

2 W. and E. Paatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz: Ein kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch,Frankfurtam Main, 1955, II, 245-47; and Krautheimer,Ghiberti, 18.

I already made reference to this matter in "Nicola Pisano, Federigo Visconti, and the Classical Style in Pisa," Art Bulletin, LIX, 1977,7.

Krautheimer (Ghiberti, 18) notes that Bocchi and Del Migliore, although

not Vasari, seem to be referringto both sets of doors made by Ghiberti when they use the term "Gates of Paradise."

4 Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summae Theologiae, III, Q. 69, A. 7; Sancti ThomaeAquinatisDoctorisAngeliciOpera Omnia, Rome, 1906, XI, 111. See G. LeBras, Institutionesecclsiastiques de la chretient.medie'vale,(Histoirede l'Eglisedepuisles originesjusqu'anosjours, XlI,I), Tournai, 1959, 126, n.4, for a brief summaryof the most important sources.

5 Cited in Angiola, 7.

6 B. Maragone, Gli annales pisani di Bernardo Maragone, ed. M. Lupo Gentile, RerumItalicarumScriptores,vI, Pt. II, Bologna, 1936, 30: "A.D. MCLXIIII, tertio kal. Octubris, die Sancti Michaelis prima columna ecclesie Sancti Iohannis Baptiste erecta est, et infra XIIII dies, gratia Dei, tote octo erecte sunt, de quibus unam in uno die Porta Aurea erexit." The use of this terminology in connection with the Baptistery of Pisa and the problem of its translation are noted by C. Sheppard, "The East Portal of the Baptistery and the West Portal of the Cathedral of Pisa: A Question of Dates," Gazettedes beaux-arts,ser. 6, LII,1958, 16.

7 A good discussion of the origin of the name "Golden Gate" and its use for a Temple Mount gate is J. Morgenstern, "The Gates of Righteousness," HebrewUnionCollegeAnnual, vl, 1929, 1-37.

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the PortaParadisi,the gatehouse throughwhich the Christian enters the Heavenly City, then the baptistery'seastern portal represents the Golden Gate, its splendid and triumphal principalentrance. The imageryhas an additionalmeaning in its baptismal context. The use of the name for an eastern portal is associatedwith the light of the regeneratedmorning sun that shines forth from the east.8 The eastern portal is figurativelyas well as literally the gate of the Rising Sun since the newly baptizedChristian rises spirituallyrebornfrom the water of the font within the baptistery in the same way that Christ who is the Sun of Righteousnessrose from his tomb at dawn on EasterSunday.Christ'stomb, the place of his burial,

is also the place of his Resurrection. For this reason baptisteriesin the West were frequentlymodeled on the Churchof the Holy Sepulchrein Jerusalem.9It has been suggestedthat the main portalof the Churchof the Holy in the Sepulchreitself(Fig. 3), constructedby the Crusaders twelfthcentury,mayhave been patternedafterthe doublearchedGoldenGate.10 An understanding of the meaningof the portalsof Paradise is especially importantfor the Baptisteryof Florence. A sermonattributedto Saint Bernardof Clairvauxdiscourses uponthe gatesof the HeavenlyCity as they aredescribedin the Bookof Revelation(21:12-13).The sermonbeginswith a

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1-33; and U. Boeck, "Das Baptisteriumzu Pisa und die Jerusalemer Anastasis,"Bonner Jahrbiicher, CLXIV, 1964, 146-56.

N. "Local Christian in Art TwelfthCenturyJerusalem," Israel Kenaan, ,0 Exploration Journal,xxIIl,1973,221-22.

B. Diebner, "Die Orientierung des JerusalemerTempels und die 'Sacred Direction' der friihchristlichen Kirchen," Zeitschrift des deutschen 1971, 153-66; and Morgenstern,passim.

Palitstina-Vereins, LXXXVII, R. "Introduction to an 'Iconography of Medieval Krautheimer, 9 Architecture,' " Journal of the Warburgand Courtauld Institutes, v. 1942,

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considerationof the easternportal: "At the east, that is, throughthe gate of innocence, the innocentsentered;they, who knewhow to die beforethey knew how to speak,were slaughteredfor the Lord.Throughthis gate little children, born again in baptism,enter. Since they have receivedthe sacramentof rebirth,if theyarereleasedfromtheirbodiessoon thereafteror a little later, without doubt enter into the HeavenlyJerusalemthroughthe gate of innocence." The sermonthen continueswiththe westerngate:"Fromthe west, that is, through the gate of penitence, Mary Magdalen entered, who becauseof her sins had previouslybeen the of demons.Butlater,promptedby the sightof dwelling-place divinegrace,by her weepingandrepentance,by worshipping her Saviorwith a uniquelove,she wasmadethe templeof the Holy Spirit.Also throughthis gate enterthe penitents,who . when they receivelight fromthe Sun of Justice,if they renouncecompletelyall the retinueof Satanandthe worksof darkness,enter into Jerusalemabove throughthe gate of penitence."'l The FlorentineBaptisterydoes not have a westernportal;its place is takenby an altarrecess.Although its original location is not known with total certainty, Donatello's grippingfigureof SaintMaryMagdalenis recorded in the sixteenthcenturyagainstthe southwestwall, opposite the tomb of BaldassareCoscia on the northwestwall (Fig. 4).12 The statue illustratesperfectlythe sermon'simageof MaryMagdalen,"flendoet poenitendo,"who has entered Paradisethroughthe Portalof Penitence.

The decoration of the interior of the cupola of the FlorentineBapitsterywasalsodesignedwithinthe framework of the imageryof the PortaParadisi.

13 The vast and beautiful cycle of mosaics,executedin the late thirteenthand early fourteenthcenturies,includesscenesfromthe Old Testament andfromthe lives of SaintJohnthe Baptistand Christ.The dramaculminatesin an enormousfigureof Christenthroned in judgmentsurrounded byangelsandflankedbyseatedrowsof saints,prophets,andApostles(Fig.5). The sceneis essentially a vision, the revelationthat awaitsthe Christianwhen the Heavensopen and the gloryof the Lordshinesforth (Ezekiel 43:1-6). The mostdetailedsourcesof the imageryof the Last Judgmentarethe closingchaptersof the Bookof Revelation (20:11-15)and especiallySaint Paul'sdescriptionof Heaven revealed(Hebrews12:22-25):"YoustandbeforeMountZion and the city of the living God, heavenlyJerusalem,before myriadsof angels, the full concourseand assemblyof the

spiritsof goodmen madeperfect,andJesusthe mediatorof a new covenant,whosesprinkledbloodhasbetterthingsto tell than the blood of Abel." As we enter the Baptisteryof Florence,we see aboveourheadsin the shiningmosaicsthe revelationof the living God who appearsas the Gates of Paradiseopen.

Both the formanddecorationof the Baptisteryof Florence aredependenton one complexyet clearidea. Thereis little that is arbitrary, little that is unrelatedto the themeof Gates of Paradise,in the building's conception.As we shallsee, the three sets of bronzedoorsalso betrayan awarenessof their context. MargaretFrazersuggeststhat all medievalbronze "TheItaliandonors, doorsarethoughtof as Gatesof Paradise: in the of following footsteps Byzantinepredecessors,made theirdoorssurrogates forthe gatesof Paradise.Theydidso by to all those wholookedupontheirdoorsfourpaths, presenting via the crucis,by whichthey hopedthe gates supplementing wouldbe reachedand opened:the intercessionof the Virgin andsaintswith Christ. . . the apostolicexampleandcounsel . . the guidanceof an archangel. . . the rebirthin Christ throughbaptism.'"14AndreaPisano'sdoors,now hungat the of Florence,illustratethe life of southportalof the Baptistery SaintJohnthe Baptist,the baptizerof men and Christ,and the titularsaint of the Baptistery.Ghiberti'sfirstset of doors for the Baptistery, originallymadefor the eastportalbut later movedto the northportal,dealswith the life of Christ.Both of these sets of doorsshowus the way into Heaven. In the former,the Baptistandhis baptismprovidethe way:Through the sacrament of baptismOriginalSin is washedawayandthe newlybaptizedentersinto the life of the Church.Tenof the twentynarrativescenesof the latterset of doorshaveas their subject events of the Passion, for Christ is the Way and indeedopensthe Gatesof the Kingdomof Heavento "baptism the baptized,to the extent that it incorporateshim in the Passionof Christ,applyingits efficacyto man."15 The meaningof the programof Ghiberti'sEastDoorshas provedto be muchmoreelusive.These Old Testamentdoors containten narrativepanelsbeginningwith the Creationof Adam and Eve, continuingthroughthe storiesof Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham,JacobandEsau,Joseph,Moses,Joshua andthe fallof Jericho,David,andendingwiththe meetingof Solomonand the Queenof Sheba.The panelsareframedby singlefiguresof menandwomen;manyof themareidentifiable as OldTestament heroesandprophets.Whathasseemedto be

first-borncitizens of heaven, and God the judge of all, and the

missing in the reading of the programis the single, unifying

" Saint Bernardof Clairvaux (attrib.), Sermode DuodecimPortisJerusalem, in J.P. Migne, PatrologiaeCursus Completus, Series Latina (hereafter Pat. Lat.), Paris, 1879, CLXXXIV, 1118:"Aboriente, id est per portam innocentiae innocentes sunt ingressi; qui ante scientes mori quam loqui, pro Domini sunt trucidati. Per hanc portam ingrediunturparvuli, per Baptismumrenati: qui Sacramento regenerationis accepto, si mox, aut paulo post a corpore solvuntur, procul dubio in coelestem Jerusalem per portam innocentiae ingrediuntur ... Ab occidente, id est per portam poenitentiae, Maria Magdalena est ingressa, quae merito peccatoram suorum ante fuerat habitatio daemonum: sed respectu divinae gratiae postmodum compuncta, flendo et poenitendo, Salvatoremque suum singulari amore colendo, facta est sancti Spiritus templum. Per hanc etiam portam ingrediuntur

poenitentes . . . cum a Sole justitiae illustrantur, si omnibus pompis Satanae, et operibus tenebrarum perfecte abrenuntiant, in supernam Jerusalem per portam poenitentiae intrant." I wish to thank Professor Richard W. Baldes for his help with the translation of this passage.

12 H.W. Janson, The Sculptureof Donatello, Princeton, 1957, II, 190.

13 The most thorough discussion of baptistery decoration is U. Mielke, Die Plastikam Baptisteriumin Parmaund ihreBeziehungzum Taufsakrament,diss., Berlin, 1970.

14 M.E. Frazer,"Church Doors and the Gates of Paradise: Byzantine Bronze Doors in Italy,"DumbartonOaks Papers, xxvII, 1973, 147-48. is Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summae, III, Q. 69, A. 7; OperaOmnia, xII, 111.

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theme that ties together the sequence of Old Testamentstories and clarifiesthe presence of the doors at the PortaParadisi.16 In the discussion that follows, I will try to show that the programof Ghiberti'sEast Doors is as much part of the theme of ways to Paradiseas the two earliersets of doors and thus an appropriatedecorationfor the Portalof Paradise.

Baptism and Christ'ssacrifice upon the Cross redeem man from the burden of Original Sin. What, however, of the righteousmen who lived and died beforeChrist'scoming?How do they reach the Heavenly Kingdom?Saint Paul deals with this problemin his letter to the Hebrews.He concludes that it is through their faith that the heroes and heroines of the Old Age are saved (Hebrews 11:13-16):'All these persons died in faith: They were not yet in possessionof the things promised, but had seen them far ahead and hailed them, and confessed themselves no more than strangers or passing travellers on earth. Those who use such languageshow plainly that they are looking for a country of their own. . . . we find them longing for a better country-I mean, the heavenly one. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he has a city readyfor them." Saint Paul then enumeratesexamples of the acts and lives of greatfaith recordedin the Old Testament.He includes Cain and Abel (Hebrews 11:14), Noah (11:7), Abraham(11:8-12 and 17-19), Jacoband Esau(11:20), Joseph (11:22), Moses (11:23-29), the fall of Jericho (11:30), David (11:32), and the countless unnamedothers who "throughfaith o. verthrew kingdoms, established justice, saw God's promisesfulfilled. They muzzledraveninglions, quenched the fury of fire, escaped death by the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength, they grewpowerfulin war,they put foreign armiesto rout"(11:33-35).

The programof Ghiberti's East Doors may be seen as an exposition on faith with each panel devoted to an exemplary life based on the certainty of unseen realities. It is through their faith that the men and women of the Old Testament reach the Heavenly City. The ten panels condense the story of the loss of Paradiseand returnto it. In the firstpanel (Fig. 6) arethe Creation of Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve sharingthe forbidden fruit, and finally the Expulsion from Paradise. At the farright of the panel Adam and Eve aredriven throughthe

arched Portal of Paradise. Adam'svigorous stride to the very edge of the relief reinforcesthe sense of expulsion and carries our attention out of the first panel and into the subsequent panels and the long journey back to Paradise. The last panel on the doors, the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Fig. 7), brings us back symbolically to the Portal of Paradise. Although Solomon and the Queen do not appear among the heroes named by Saint Paul, the long journey of the Queen to the court of Solomon (I Kings 10:1-13 and II Chronicles 9: 1-12) was clearly understood by Christian theologians to be an act of faith."7The handclaspof the two figuresis the fidei symbolum,the visible sign of the faith that has brought the Queen to Solomon. The motif of the joined hands figures prominently in Mielke's discussion of the meaning of the relief.18 In her view, the meeting is a wedding feast. The joining of hands is the dextrarumiunctio,the symbol of the coming together in faith of bride and groom. The weddingof Solomon and the Queen prefiguresthe weddingof Christ and his Church. In light of the other typological elements identified in the panels by Mielke, such a readingof this scene is possible without denying the central theme of faith. Although the handclasp, the sign of faith, is an important part of marriageimagery,9 its primarymeaning in the Renaissance is simply faith, within or outside a marriage context. The various editions of Andrea Alciati's emblem book, for example, illustratethe virtue Faith by means of two figuresclaspinghands (Fig. 8).

Not only is the Queen of Sheba a symbol of faith, but she also playsa part in our returnto Paradise.She is the prophetic witness of the events of the LastJudgment.She appearstwice in the New Testamentin similartexts, in Matthew 12:42 and in Luke 11:31: "At the Judgement, when the men of this generation are on trial, the Queen of the South will appear against them and ensure their condemnation, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and what is here is greaterthan Solomon." The Queen who travels from Sheba to see Solomon is the Queen of the South who is present at the Last Judgment.20 The meeting of Solomon and the Queen takes place before a large structure closely resemblinga Gothic church. It has been suggestedthat

16 Krautheimeroffers the most comprehensive discussion of the programof the doors (Ghiberti, 169-88); he is particularly interested in the unusual inclusion in an Old Testamentcycle of the scene of the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He relates the presence of the scene to the hoped-for unification of Eastern and Western Churches. Hartt associates a number of the panels with a sermon for the feast of Saint John the Baptist written by Saint Antonine of Florence (E Hartt, A History of Italian RenaissanceArt: Painting, Sculpture,Architecture,London, 1970, 198); he notes that the sermon in all likelihood postdates the doors. Most recently Mielke has done a study of the typological elements of the East Doors (U. Mielke, "Zum Programmder Paradiesestiir,"Zeitschriftfiir Kunstgeschichte, xxxiv, 1971, 115-34); she identifies as the underlyingtheme of the program Christ and his Church, from the creation of the Church from the side of the

sleeping Adam in the first panel to the wedding of the Church to Christ in the last panel.

17 See, for example, Walafrid Strabo, Glossa ordinaria; Pat. lat., cxIIl, 601-02.

18 Mielke, "ZumProgramm,"121-25.

19 E. Panofsky, "JanVan Eyck'sArnolfini Portrait," BurlingtonMagazine,

LXIV,1934, 117-27.

J.B. Pritchard, ed., Solomon and Sheba, London, 1974, 115-17; A. Chastel, "La Rencontre de Salomon et de la Reine de Saba dans l'iconographie medievale," Gazettedes beaux-arts,ser. 6, xxxv, 1949, 106. It is in her role as prophetic witness that the Queen appears in Piero della Francesca'sLegend of the True Cross in S. Francesco, Arezzo.

20

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GATES

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the structure was modeled on the Cathedral of Florence

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Fidei Symboluam-.

itself.21 If, as Mielke states, Solomon's Temple is a symbolic

representationof Ecclesia, then it is specifically the Church that is to come, the Heavenly Jerusalem, that is meant.

Solomon's Temple had long been understood by Christian writersto be a prefigurationof Heavenly Jerusalem:"Templum itaque illud mirificum a Salomone aedificatum civitatem sanctam Jerusalem significat, cum verus Salomon Christus videlicet rex pacificus ex vivis lapidibus, hoc est ex fidelium animis aedificare non cessat quotidie."22 Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as prophetess are not unusual in a baptismal context. Figures of the two carved by Benedetto Antelami appear on the exterior of the Baptistery of Parma (Fig. 9).

Solomon carries in his left hand a scroll upon which the fragments of an inscription reading "King Solomon and the Queen of the South" wereformerlyvisible.23 Thus all ten panels on Ghiberti'sEastDoors have a common thread. They show the way through faith to the portals of Paradise.The narrativetakes us from the beginning, the Fall of Man, to the final illustration of an act of extraordinary faith, the meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Because the Queen who stands with Solomon at the portal of his Temple, a model of Heavenly Jerusalem,is also present at the Last Judgment, the last panel carries us forwardin time and suggeststhe arrivalof the faithful at the Gates of Paradise itself.

In this light, the changes in the evolution of the program from Bruni's original scheme to the plan as it was finally executed are significant. Bruni'sprogram,with its twenty Old Testament scenes and eight single figures, is essentially narrative;the emphasisis upon the sequence of chronological events.24 Because the stories in their final form are condensed and the number of panels is reduced to ten, the separate episodes take second place to the main theme of each panel, the glorification of the righteous and faithful life of each ancestor. Bruni proposed as the subject of the last panel the Judgment of Solomon. The substitution of the Meeting of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba is perhapsthe most telling change made in the program,since the Judgmentof Solomon is in no way related to the theme of faith. It is also possible that when the Calimalafirstenvisioned a set of Old Testament

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22 Saint Brunoof 865. The Asti, SermonesTresInedita;Pat. Lat., CLXV, passageappearswith only slightvariationin manymedievalcommentaries on the Bookof Kings.Thereis an enormousliteratureon the symbolismof ChurchandTempleandthe relationshipof both to the HeavenlyJerusalem.

Fora recentsourceespeciallyusefulfor its bibliography, see H.-F Reske, undGestaltungsmuster: Jerusalem Caelestis-Bildformeln Darbietungsformen eineschristlichen in derdeutschen des 11.

Zentralgedankens geistlichen Dichtung und12.Jahrhunderts, G5ppingen,1973.See alsoL.H. Stookey,"TheGothic Cathedralas the HeavenlyJerusalem: LiturgicalandTheologicalSources," of the Gesta, viii, 1, 1969, 34-41; and C.H. Krinsky,"Representations and Courtauld Templeof Jerusalembefore1500,"Journalof the Warburg Institutes,XXXIII, 1970,1-19.

23G. de Francovich,Benedetto Antelamiarchitetto e scultoree l'artedelsuo tempo,Milan,1952,1, 170,n. 19.

24 Krautheimer, Ghiberti,169-72.

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doorsfor the Baptistery, theyhadalreadydeterminedthat the programwas to be salvation throughfaith. The subject of the competition panel is the most dramaticevent in the life of the patriarch Abraham, his sacrifice of his son Isaac. Beginning

with Saint Paul, Abrahamis the principalOld Testament exemplarof faithfulnessfor Christian writers:"Forit was not through law that Abraham, or his posterity, was given the promisethat the worldshould be his inheritance, but through the righteousnessthat came from faith" (Romans 4:13).25 He

is named as the physical embodiment of faith on the Baptisteryof Parma.To the left of the westportal,the Last Judgment portal, of the Baptistery, there is a seated female figure representing the virtue Faith. Below the figure is an

inscriptionthat remindsus that Abrahamwas pleasingto Christbecauseof his faith.26 of Florence In 1452the thirdset of doorsfor the Baptistery was completedand gilded. The decisionwas madeto move Ghiberti'searlierdoorsto the northernportaland to install the new doors at the eastern portal.27 The doors were interchangeablebecausethey all conformedto a common theme. Each set of doors showsus a way to the Portalof Paradise:we areredeemedthroughChristand the sacrament of baptismandwe areredeemedthroughfaith.28Thusthe Old Testament doors hung at the eastern portal when Michelangelostood beforethe Baptisteryof Florenceand there we see them today:a splendidgoldengate that is the that arethe Gatesof GoldenGate, and "Gatesof Paradise" Paradise.

Universityof Alabama,Tuscaloosa

25 A.N. Didron, "Iconographie des vertus theologales," Annales xx, 1860,242-43. archologiques, 26 Francovich,174;Mielke,DiePlastik,86-87.

27Krautheimer, Ghiberti,167.

28 Cf. Rabanus in LibrosQuatorRegum;Pat.Lat.,cIx, Maurus,Commentaria 192-93.

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