The Baptistery of San Giovanni: The Origins of Renaissance Art: The Baptistery Doors, Florence

This lavish volume - containing comprehensive texts and 294 full color illustrations - serves as an essential and much-needed introduction to the carved bronze doors of Florence's Baptistery, a landmark of Renaissance art.
When Florence took cultural command of Italy early in the fifteenth century, inaugurating the Renaissance and establishing itself as the intellectual and artistic capital of southern Europe, one of the key signposts in the new movement was the competition for a design for the east doors of the Baptistery in 1401-02. Andrea Pisano had designed the south doors of the same structure almost three generations earlier. Now, the greatest sculptors of the age - among them Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi - submitted their versions of the sacrifice of Isaac. Ghiberti's more elegant and cohesive version was ultimately selected; his completed doors would, in the end, establish him as one of the most sought-after artists of his day.