Among the many treasures of Grace Cathedral, the ones most visible to visitors are the great east doors, replicas of the famed Doors of Paradise. Their shimmering gold surfaces beckon the pilgrim up the great stairway to look in awe at the intricately sculpted and nearly three-dimensional panels. The original doors, by master sculptor and craftsman Lorenzo Ghiberti, stood at the east entry of the ancient Baptistry of the Duomo (Cathedral) in Florence, Italy. Now in the Duomo museum (replaced by a replica), they are considered by many art historians to mark the beginning of the Renaissance. Their popular name- Doors of Paradise- is based on a tradition that the young Michelangelo, greatly impressed by the doors, described them as worthy to be the Gates of Paradise.

One of four scenes in "The Creation, Fall and Banishment" panel depicting God creating Adam.

When Ghiberti was commissioned in 1425 to create the Doors of Paradise, he little realized it would be 27 years before the work would be finished. The main panels were prepared by the famed lost wax process. Each panel was carefully modelled in wax and covered with liquid plaster and a clay jacket. The panels were then baked until the wax flowed away, leaving a mold into which molten bronze was poured. The bronze panels were allowed to cool slowly for several days, to prevent cracking, and then the clay and plaster were removed. After cleaning, each panel was chased, or worked in fine detail with metal tools, a process that took years. Then followed the dangerous fire-gilding process- a gold-mercury amalgam was applied to each panel and the toxic mercury fumes driven off by heating, leaving gold surfaces on the panels. The completed doors were installed in 1452. For five centuries the doors stood, weathering wars and floods, until the late years of World War II.

A border panel detail of Ghiberti's son, Vittorio.

In 1943 the Nazi command in Italy ordered the evacuation of portable art works from Florence, despite its status as a "safe city". Reichsminister Goering apparently coveted the doors and other treasures for his personal collection, but the doors were hidden in a railway tunnel south of Florence until liberation in 1944. Bruno Bearzi, official consultant and caretaker of Florence's art works, cleaned the doors and made latex casts from which he cast panel replicas. When the doors were rehung, Bearzi offered the panels for sale. Grace Cathedral was nearing completion, and the completion architects- Weihe, Frick and Kruse, were searching for doors to place in the main entrance. Through the munificent gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles D. Field of San Francisco, the replicas were purchased. The government was at first reluctant to let the replicas out of the country, but Bearzi argued successfully that the panels were very slightly smaller than the originals, having shrunk during casting. The doors were framed and installed at Grace Cathedral for the Consecration Service on November 20, 1964.

Two years after the cathedral consecration, the original doors were severely tested in the great Florence Flood. Several panels were swept away in the muddy torrent but all were retrieved. In the 1980s, showing signs of serious corrosion from acid rain and smog, the doors were permanently removed to the Duomo museum. Duplicate doors were erected in their place in 1991.

Noah and his family emerge from the ark after the Great Flood.

Grace Cathedral's Doors of Paradise are over 16 feet tall, and each door weighs one and a third tons. The panels are of bronze electroplated with a nickel base on which gold was applied in a chemical process. A yearly cleaning with mild soap and water, is followed by an application of mixed turpentine and beeswax. Opened from inside using special latches, the doors are used on special occasions such as Christmas, Easter and other major services and events. Steel outer gates add further protection.

Ghiberti chose as the subjects of the main panels ten familiar narratives, taken from the first books of the Bible ranging from Genesis to Kings. Each panel contains several scenes from each story, shaped not only by the text and by Christian interpretation, but also by commentaries of the early church fathers and even by contemporary events. The border panels display Old Testament figures related to, or commenting on, the adjacent main panels, accomanied by busts done in a similar vein. Among the latter, Ghiberti included a bust of himself, his son Vittorio, and Vittorio's wife and child- a charming family group. Around the busts are lifelike sprigs of vegetation and bouquets of flowers, inhabited here and there by frogs, crickets and lizards.

The Creation of Eve.

The panels read left to right, top to base, beginning with the most famous story of all- Adam and Eve, their creation, temptation, fall and expulsion. No other story has so profoundly influenced Western civilization. The panel is notable for the "cosmic egg" design of the sublime creation of Eve scene at center, and for the poignant backward glance of Eve outside the gate of Eden. The adjacent Cain and Abel panel is even more powerful, contrasting quiet pastoral scenes with Cain's murder of the favored Abel, and the guilty Cain questioning God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The Gothic-style rocky crags seem to echo Cain's violence.

The next panel features Noah's ark, shown as the early theologian Origen described it- a huge pyramid. The ark has landed on Mt. Ararat after the Flood, and Noah and his family emerge, looking very grumpy after the voyage. Birds swarm out of the top windows, and lions, a bear, a stag and even an elephant wander around regaining their land legs. An accusative foreground story recounts how Noah's son Ham, finding his father lying drunk and half-nude, called his brothers to cover him rather than covering Noah himself. The adjacent panel shows the story of Abraham and Isaac. Despite its conservative style, the panel is admired for its economy of detail and balanced

Noah and his family.

composition. Abraham is host to three mysterious guests (God in trinitarian disguise) who tell him that his barren and aged wife Sarah will bear him a son, Isaac. She chuckles in disbelief at the tent door. In a test of faith, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, but an angel stops Abraham's unswerving obebedience.

The story of Jacob and Esau are featured in the next panel, which, more than any other panel expresses the Renaissance aesthetic. The elegantly-proportioned halls and pavement of Isaac's house are shown in linear perspective, a new discovery of Ghiberti's friend Alberti. The spacious airy arches contrast with the tortured plot. Jacob, Isaac's younger but cagier son, manages to swindle his brother Esau out of his rightful inheritance by posing as Esau before the nearly-blind Isaac. The theme of "smarter younger brother" runs through several panels, and may reflect Ghiberti's own background. The adjacent panel features another complex story, Joseph and his brothers. Sold by his jealous older brothers into slavery, Joseph eventually becomes governor of Egypt. When famine drives his brothers to Egypt to buy grain, he slowly reveals his identity, interweaving it with proof of his brothers' guilt. At the end he embraces his shocked and devastated brothers. A large circular granay dominates the panel.

Moses receiving the Law from God on Mt. Sinai.

The next panel is essentially a single scene. Moses stands on Mt. Sinai, recieving the ten commandments from God, as the frightened people of Israel gather below. The turmoil of the crowd is contrasted with the majestic nature of the law giving, far above the cloud-like treetops. The story of Moses' successor Joshua is in the adjacent panel. Joshua directs the crossing into the promised land, across the miraculously dry River Jordan, as tribal members gather stones for a memorial monument. At top background, Joshua and the Israelites march around their first conquest, Jericho, as its walls crumbling at the sound of their trumpets and shouts. Jericho resembles a typical Italian hill-town of Ghiberti's day.

David beheads Goliath.

Full of detail, because of its low position, the last main panel at left features David's defeat of Goliath. As David decapitates the fallen giant with the latter's sword, the Israelite army under King Saul take heart and press forward to victory against the disogranized and demoralized Phillistines. The battle scene is starkly realistic, and reflects Venetian/Ottoman battles of the day. In the background, a victorious David brings Goliath's head to Jerusalem, a large walled city not unlike Ghiberti's Florence. The final panel is of the wise and famous King Solomon, recieving the beautiful Queen of Sheba and her retinue at his court, gathered before the soaring walls of the Temple. Richly detailed with exotic costumes and animals, the court band, and Ghiberti in cameo, the stately scene probably symbolizes the Council of Florence, an attempted reconciliation of the eastern and western churches that met in Florence in 1439. Almost operatic in its composition, it is a fitting finale to the shimmering narrative of Grace Cathedral's Doors of Paradise.

Special Feature: Bible in Bronze

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