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FRANCE CATHEDRAL A ND
6 ~[J~VJZE 0
ITALY

TYRRHENIAN
SEA
MEDITEIIf<ANEAN SEA
IONIAN
SEA

THE CATHEDRAL WORKS MUSEUM
Th1 s 1nform ative museum consists of a senes of
rooms dedicated to the history of the cathedral.
The main ground floor room contains statues
from Arnolfo di Cambio'sworks hop, which
once occupied the cathedral's niches. Nearby is
Donatello' sSt. John, and Michelangelo's Pi eta
can be seen on the staircase. The upperfloor
conta1ns tm choir lofts from the 1430s by Luca
della Robbla and Donatello. The haunting
statue La Maddalena is also by Donatello.

EAST DOORS OF THE BAPTISTRY
Lorenzo Ghiberti's famous bronze Baptistry
doors were commissioned in 1401 to mark the
city's deliverance from the plague. Ghiberti
was chosen for the project after a compe tition
involving seven leading artists of the day,
including Donatello, Jacopo della Queroa, and
Brunelleschi. The trial panels by Ghiberti and
Brunellesch1 are so different from the florentine
Goth1c art of the time, notably in the use of
perspective and individuality of figures, that
they are often regarded as the first works of
the Renaissance. Michel angelo enthusiastically
dubbed the East Doors the "Gate of
Paradise." Ghiberti worked on them from 1424
to 1452, after s pending 21 years on the North
Doors. The original relief panels are now on
display in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo.

BRUNELLESCHI'S DOME
A stunning feat of technical as well as art1stic
skill, the cathedral's dome is the epitome
of Florent1ne Renatssance arditecture
(Renaissance St:yle, see p.131). Construction
took more than 14 years, and only began
after a lengthy period of planning and model-
building, during which the dome's architect,
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), worked hard
to convince the sceptics that the project was
feasible. At one point, he even built a large-
scale model by the river to demonstrate that
the oome was techlically achievable The dome
spans 140ft (43 m) and is not buttressed,
mstead, a double wall of spirally laid bricks
was strengthened by the use of stone chains.
Desp1te his brilliance as an engineer and
architect, Brunelleschi was not made chief
architect until 1 445, a year before his death.