By Paige GherardiGhiberti’s infamous Porta del Paradiso is finally nearing the end of a 21 year restoration. The door depicts 10 stories from the Old Testament in equal squares. This masterpiece is one of the first works that took in the aspect of perspective when working with gold and bronze and took Ghiberti 26 years to compete from 1425-1452. It remained in Piazza Duomo for hundreds of years exposed to harsh weather conditions and threats of destruction by war. In the 1700s the gold was completely covered by a dark varnish to lessen the luminosity of the door – something typical of the neoclassical style. In 1943 the Porta del Paradiso was removed from the Baptistery when World War II arrived in Florence Florence
The weathered golden door was removed from the Baptistery in 1990 and replaced by a bronze replica. Since then only two people have worked on cleaning and restoring tarnished parts of the door. Methods of preservation in the past had done more damage than good from the use of acids that were traditionally used to clean marble. While the 6 squares that had fallen off during the flood were an easier task for restoration, but it proved to be much more difficult to approach the task of restoring the other 4 squares and the other 46 elements of the frieze. Experts first tried to use a metal frame attached to the various parts of the door to remove the pieces. In this method they were able to remove the remaining 4 squares and 8 elements of the frieze. In 2000 it became possible to use a laser method to detach the remaining elements of the door. Now all that remains is to transport this magnificent piece of history to its new home in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo.
