Word: ghibertis
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Michelangelo said that the doors might "fittingly stand at the gates of Paradise." All Florentines of the 1450s agreed that their Baptistery's portal sculpted by Lorenzo Ghiberti, was worthy of immortality. The double doors, 16 ft. by 9 ft., cast of bronze and overlaid with gold, held ten panels that told Old Testament tales in such grace ful relief that the metal seemed brushed on like oils...
Immortality has no guarantees on earth. Only the beauty of Ghiberti's doors saved them from centuries of soldiers smelting Renaissance masterworks into cannon. When World War II broke out, the Italian government or dered the doors taken down for safety...
...third of the way around the world from Florence.Bearzi 's two-ton doules opened last week on their first services in the newly consecrated cathe dral. In some ways, the doors are closer 3 mint condition than the originals in Florence. After centuries, much of Ghiberti's detail was too weathered and worn to emerge clearly. So, after gilding the bronze, Bearzi's foundry chased the Renaissance precision touch back on. One craftsman spent six weeks detailing a postcard-size section, bringing out each and every feather on a bird no bigger than one-sixth...
From the days of the Medici, Florence has been a city of treasures that every eye could see. In one direction was a chapel by Michelangelo, in another a dome by Brunelleschi; here was a bronze door by Ghiberti, there a statue by Donatello. But these were only a part of Florence's great legacy...
...others had tried, he mixed a special solvent to wash away the dirt and corrosion of centuries. Last week, while the Baptistery choir sang and long trumpets blared, the curtains over the doors fell away. At the sight, women fell to their knees; men wept. After all the years, Ghiberti's doors glistened and gleamed once more as he had made them...