Vittorio Ghiberti, Frame of the South Door

Frame of the south door of the Baptistery, in bronze with gilded detail, made between 1453 and 1466 by Vittorio di Lorenzo Ghiberti. The inner faces of the frame are cast in very low relief, showing ribbons of greenery. The front, in higher relief, is decorated with a garland of dense foliage and flowers of different plants, twined with ribbon and scattered with cornucopia, fruits, ears of corn, birds, and angels within clypei. Near the bottom of the jambs are Adam, on the left, and Eve, with their infant sons, Cain, Abel and Seth. These figures bear vases with the garlands emerging. The decoration adheres to the aesthetic principle of varietas (variety) and copia (abundance), also seen in the other door frames. The iconological intent is probably to communicate the abundant fertility of nature, stained by the sin of our forbearers, but now purified by baptism, the sacrament administered within this temple.