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Lorenzo
Ghilberti's famous bronze Baptistry doors were commissioned in
1401 to mark the city's deliverance from the plague. Ghilberti
was chosen to make a set of new doors after a competition that
involved seven leading artists;including Donatello, Jacopo della
Quercia and Brunelleschi. Having spent 21 years working on the
North Doors, Ghilberti was commissioned to make the East Doors
(1424 -1452). The trial panels by Ghilberti and Brunelleschi are
often regarded as the first works of the Renaissance. The doors
were enthusiastically named by Michelangelo as the "Gates
of Paradise". The original ten relief panels showing scriptural
subjects are now exhibited in the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo.
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