. Florence and her treasures. Ghibertis mira arte fabricatum. Above thissuperb work is the Baptism of Christ, by Andrea Sansovino(1502). The two broken antique pillars of red porphyrybeside this gate were presented by the Republic of Pisa asa thank-offering for the assistance given by Florence in thewar of 1117 against the Saracens: The North Door is alsothe work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, being the outcome of a cele-brated public competition, in which Ghibertis design waspreferred by the judges of the Republic to those submittedto them by Brunelleschi, Jacopo della Quercia, and otherleading artists
. Florence and her treasures. Ghibertis mira arte fabricatum. Above thissuperb work is the Baptism of Christ, by Andrea Sansovino(1502). The two broken antique pillars of red porphyrybeside this gate were presented by the Republic of Pisa asa thank-offering for the assistance given by Florence in thewar of 1117 against the Saracens: The North Door is alsothe work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, being the outcome of a cele-brated public competition, in which Ghibertis design waspreferred by the judges of the Republic to those submittedto them by Brunelleschi, Jacopo della Quercia, and otherleading artists. This was in 1400, when the artist was buttwenty-two years old, and his success on this occasiondoubtless spurred the youthful Ghiberti to the subsequentefforts which produced the Gates of Paradise alreadymentioned. This north door represents in twenty-eightsections the history of Christ, the Apostles, and the earlyFathers of the Church, and though not so famous as theneighbouring masterpiece, this earlier work is almost as. THE BAPTISTERY 41 beautiful and deserving of close inspection. Above it,the Preaching of S. John, by Francesco Rustici (1511). The interior (best visited on a sunny day near noon) isvery dark, so that the mosaics of the dome are .eldom seento advantage. The roof is supported by sixteen ancientcolumns, fifteen of granite and one of white marble, withgilded capitals. The ancient pavement, of inlaid black andwhite marbles, consists of a series of intricate patterns. Tothe right near the centre of the pavement is the curiousMonument of the Astrologer Strozzo Strozzi (d. 1048), withthe signs of the Zodiac and the enigmatical sentence (readingalike forwards and backwards), En gire torte sol ciclos etroter igne. The baptismal Font, wherein every child bornin Florence is baptized, was set up in its present position inthe seventeenth century after the destruction of the oldhistoric font. Near the high altar, disfigured by an incon-gruous marble group dating from th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernew, booksubjectart
