In a country not short of beautiful cities, Florence is surely one of Italy's most beautiful. Looking down on the city below from the steps of the church of San Miniato al Monte, with the River Arno making its slow progress through its centre, the tapestry of red and green-tiled palaces and churches is breath taking. Where visitors to many other cities might carry with them a tourist guide, visitors to Florence are in need of an art guide. Palaces, art galleries and museums, of world renown, are on almost every corner. Michelangelo's famous statue of David is just one of the many treasures at home in this treasure of a city. Standing out from them all, though, and towering above everything else, is the city's magnificent cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. Begun in 1296 to a design by Arnolfo di Cambio, the cathedral was completed in 1436. Its exterior is covered with panels of white, green and pink polychrome marble. The campanile, or bell tower, was designed by Giotto, and the world famous dome by Brunelleschi. To this day, the dome of Florence cathedral remains the largest brick dome in the world. The three-building complex, of cathedral, bell tower and baptistery, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the centre of Florence. It is the baptistery, though, the Battistero di San Giovanni, to which the eyes of art lovers throughout the world are turned this week, for after nearly 30 years of restoration the Baptistery's greatest treasure has once more been revealed to the public. Built between 1059 and 1128 in the Florentine Romanesque style, the Baptistery of Saint John is one of the oldest buildings in the city. The Italian poet Dante Alighieri was baptised here. It was quite normal for a cathedral to have a separate building to house the place where people would be baptised, and Italy has many other famous examples such as the Baptistery in Pisa, separate from the cathedral and bell Tower, or the Baptistery of Rome's own cathedral, San Giovanni in Laterano. There are three sets of doors for the Baptistery. In 1401, a competition was announced by the Cloth Importers Guild to design a set of bronze doors for the Baptistery, to complement existing doors by Andrea Pisano. The competition drew many of the most famous artists and sculptors of the age. The finalists included Jacopo della Quercia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello. The judges finally selected two competitors from all the entrants, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, but were unable to decide which of their work was best so decided to award the prize to them both, asking them to work together on the final design. Brunelleschi, being too proud to accept working with someone else, left Florence and went off to Rome, leaving the 21-year-old Ghiberti to design the finished work. It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete this commission, which consists of two doors and a total of 28 panels in gilded bronze depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament. When the work was complete, Ghiberti had become a very famous man, with commissions from many other art patrons, including the pope. In 1425, he got a second commission, to sculpt another set of doors, this time for the east of the Baptistery, and it is these that have become his masterpiece. They consist of 10 panels depicting scenes from the Old Testament. When Michelangelo saw this finished work, he declared that the doors were fit to be the doors of paradise itself, and it is this name, “Porta del Paradiso," that has been used for them ever since. The ravages of time and the elements, though, and the disastrous flood of 1966, took their toll. After nearly 600 years, these east doors were replaced by replicas in 1990 and the originals were taken inside to the Cathedral Museum for restoration. The centuries of grime and oxidisation had taken the lustre from the doors and so a project was begun to restore them to their original condition. It is the unveiling of that restoration work, using lasers and chemical baths, that is being celebrated this week. Now encased in a huge, non-reflective glass cabinet, where humidity is kept to a maximum of 15 degrees to prevent them being oxidised again, the doors can be seen once more in their full glory. Even in such hard economic times as the world is going through, the preservation of the world's great works of art is surely still a priority. The restoration was funded by the Friends of Florence, an American non-profit organisation, and the Italian government. Lorenzo Ornaghi, Italy's Minister for Culture and Heritage, has declared that “the restoration of one of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance is complete". Muslims read in the holy Quran: “Gardens of Eden! They enter them wearing armlets of gold and pearl and their raiment therein is silk. And they say: Praise to Allah Who hath put grief away from us. Our Lord is Forgiving, Bountiful." 35: 33-35 Prophet Muhamed (peace be upon him) told us that there are many gates to paradise, and all of them open and close, but there is one gate that remains always open, and that is the gate of repentance. The beautiful things of this world are a reflection of the beauty of the One, who created the world itself. In viewing once more, after so many years of restoration, Ghiberti's masterpiece, we might take a few moments to reflect on that day when we, too, may enter the gates of paradise, and it may teach us to walk through this world with steps of humility, inshallah. British Muslim writer, Idris Tawfiq, teaches at Al-Azhar University. The author of nine books about Islam, he divides his time between Egypt and the UK as a speaker, writer and broadcaster. You can visit his website at www.idristawfiq.com and join him on Facebook at Idris Tawfiq Page.
