Dome

The right door: detail of the daughter of Herodias presents John's head to her mother; In 1329 the Arte di Calimala (the cloth-merchants' guild, who were in charge of the Baptistery), abandoning an earlier plan to cover the wooden doors of the Baptistery with metal plates, decided to install new doors cast in bronze (now on the south side). Documents identify the designer as Andrea Pisano. The doors, installed in 1336, were cast by the lost-wax process, with fire-gilt figures, background details and decorative motifs. The 28 rectangular fields contain reliefs, each within a quatrefoil frame, illustrating scenes from the Life of St John the Baptist and, in the lowest two rows, seated Virtues. In them Andrea succeeded in translating the narrative power of Giotto's paintings into sculpture. The reliefs reveal the influence of northern Gothic art but also hint at the sculptor's future assimilation of the classical style in his work on the campanile Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 12/16/2007)