Only recently did I discover that Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, California, has a fine replica of the famous "Ghiberti doors," made in the fifteenth century for the Baptistry of Florence, Italy. They are considered perhaps the finest doors ever created.
Some marvelous person has, moreover, written up a multimedia feature for the Grace Cathedral website that permits all of us to examine the doors close-up and really get to know them.
First, let's get an over-all picture --
Here is the main entrance of the Cathedral You can see the doors in the center.
Here you can see the doors in situ, as it were.
Last, here is a close-up of the doors themselves.
Now, moving on to the website's feature page about the doors.
You need to know just three easy things to make the best use of the page.
* First, the doors have ten panels, which are divided into five rows, with two columns in each row.
* Second, as you mouse-over any given panel, you will see that just one of the various "scenes" in the panel is highlighted at a time.
* Finally, when you click on the highlighted scene, you will arrive at an enlargement of the scene and some text explaining it.
To make sure you understand how to proceed, do this --
Go to the first panel Adam and Eve. This panel has four "scenes" or sub-scenes.
Mouse-over the lower-left portion of the panel, to see the first scene, wherein God creates Adam.
Click on that scene to see a close-up and read a description of it.
* *
Now you're ready to enjoy all ten panels, each of which focuses on a different portion of the Old Testament --
Top row:
Adam and Eve (4 scenes);
Cain and Abel (5 scenes)
Second row down:
Noah and family (3 scenes);
Abraham and Isaac (2 scenes)
Third (middle) row down:
Jacob and Esau (6 scenes);
Joseph and his brothers (5 scenes)
Fourth row down:
Moses on top of Mt. Sinai (2 scenes);
Joshua and the Promised Land (2 scenes)
Bottow row:
David and Goliath (3 scenes);
King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (2 scenes)
Recent Comments