The "Gates of Paradise": Lorenzo Ghiberti's Renaissance Masterpiece

Lorenzo Ghberti's Gates of Paradise is one of the great touchstones of Renaissance art. Executed between 1425 and 1452, the gilt bronze panels and their decorative frames produced a new formal vocabulary and inspired the admiration of artists and art lovers for generations. The recent conservation of the Gates of Paradise in Florence has restored them to their original luster, and Chicagoans can see the results this summer during the unprecedented tour of three narrative panels and four decorative elements from Ghiberti's masterpiece. Two renowned scholars--Cristina Acidini, superintendent of the State Museums of Florence, and Annamaria Giusti, director of Museo dell'Opificio delle Pierre Dure, Florence--who were intimately involved in the conservation process share their experience and knowledge of Ghiberti and his work in conversation with Bruce Boucher, curator of sculpture in the Department of Medieval through Modern European Painting and Sculpture, in Fullerton Hall on July 26 at 6:00.

This lecture has been organized and supported by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Chicago.

Lorenzo Ghiberti. Jacob and Esau Panel from Gates of Paradise, 1425-52. Collection of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Image courtesy Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence.