About the Image(s)

The "Gates of Paradise" signify the symbolic entrance to salvation through their role as the main entrance to the Florence Baptistery, which served as the gateway to the sacred space of baptism and spiritual rebirth. Artistically, they are considered a masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance due to Lorenzo Ghiberti's revolutionary use of perspective, detail, and narrative storytelling in the Old Testament scenes depicted on the panels. Culturally, the doors represent Florence's status as a center for artistic and cultural achievement during the Renaissance.

To me, the actual structure is magnificent but when the nuns clustered around the gates, it became an ideal blending of both the artist's work and the nuns' devotion.