This remarkable and beautiful new volume examines twenty-three major artworks that were produced to decorate Sta. Maria del Fiore in Florence, better known to visitors as the Duomo, or cathedral, in the first decades of the 1400s. These include nine works alone by Donatello, considered one of the greatest and most influential Italian sculptors, including his masterpiece Lo Zuccone, and The Evangelist John which inpsired Michelangelo. There are also detailed discussions of the gilded bronze doors Ghiberti made for the neighboring Florence Baptistery. The volume includes images of the recently cleaned panels from his second set of doors, known as the Gates of Paradise, as well as photographs of his first doors that highlight the remarkable results of an ongoing restoration campaign. With four chapters by leading scholars, and a catalogue presenting over 50 superb colour plates of the artworks, beautifully photographed by leading art photographer Antonio Quattrone, this volume explains how these masterpieces had a profound impact on the art of the Italian Renaissance. This is a major new scholarly survey, and will become a seminal text on the artistic imagination, creativity and skill of the Florentine Renaissance.
