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72-471: The structure was begun 1421 and largely complete in 1440. When finished, it was, however, quite isolated, the reason being that construction for the new building for San Lorenzo, the design for which Brunelleschi was also responsible, was not far along. It was only in the years after 1459 that the Old Sacristy was unified with San Lorenzo, connected to its left transept. The plan is a perfect square with

144-611: A Charity in the Museo Bardini possibly sharing the same provenance. During the Renaissance, new sculptural groups were commissioned: above the east door, a Baptism of Christ begun by Andrea Sansovino in 1505 (Baptist), continued by Vincenzo Danti in 1568-1569 (Christ), and completed by Innocenzo Spinazzi in 1792 (angel); above the north door, a Baptist Preaching by Francesco Rustici (1506-11), strongly influenced by Rustici’s friend Leonardo da Vinci who depicted

216-517: A baptistery before the present one, but whether it existed at the same location, or was placed somewhere else near the cathedral (the Milan baptistery was behind the cathedral), is a matter of ongoing debate and inquiry. For much of its early history, the Baptistery stood among tombs. Even in the 19th century, the southern portal was flanked by sarcophagi. These reminders of earthly death underscored

288-703: A classicizing facade. Pope Gregory VII ’s 1073 consecration of Santa Maria in Portico in Rome is commemorated on its Roman ara , a pagan altar, inscribed and repurposed for Christian use (now in Santa Galla , Rome). Church poetry compared Pope Gregory to Julius Caesar , and in a letter Gregory himself stated that the reach of the Church now exceeded that of the Roman Empire . The Church at this time also believed in

360-402: A completely new format, ten panels without quatrefoils, each large enough to accommodate multiple episodes. Every panel would be gilded in its entirety, giving it more unity than in earlier doors where the panel ground was left in bare bronze. The project would ultimately prove almost as costly as the first set of doors, but even more beautiful — and the first set of doors, originally hung facing

432-409: A corrupt offering of money made by his father. Their accusations gained traction among Florentines, to the point that, according to Peter Damian , they no longer accepted the chrism Mezzabarba consecrated for the baptism of their children, and sought baptism elsewhere. This situation seems to have persisted for three years until 1068, when a Vallombrosian brother underwent a trial by fire in front of

504-521: A dating in the 1060s or 1070s. It is not as refined as the later parts of San Miniato al Monte , datable to 1077-1115. A hypothesis published in 2024 proposes that the Baptistery originated in the early 1070s from a collaboration between Beatrice of Lorraine and her daughter Matilda of Tuscany , the rulers of the March of Tuscany , and one of the popes with whom they were closely aligned, Pope Alexander II (d. 1073) or more likely Pope Gregory VII (on

576-580: A focus of religious, civic, and artistic life since its completion. The octagonal baptistery stands in both the Piazza del Duomo and the Piazza San Giovanni , between Florence Cathedral and the Archbishop 's Palace. Florentine infants were originally baptized in large groups on Holy Saturday and Pentecost in a five-basin baptismal font located at the center of the building. Over

648-406: A highly ambitious plan inspired by then-still-unrivaled doors for Pisa Cathedral made by Bonanno Pisano 150 years earlier. Andrea Pisano made wax models for bronze reliefs that were executed by Venetian masters, which he then gilded. The year in which they were begun, 1330, appears above the doors, but they took six years to complete. The historian Giovanni Villani was trusted with oversight of

720-526: A large house, was present at the site in Roman times. A burial ground with rough-hewn stones from around the 7th century has also been discovered beneath a portion of the building. No documents pertaining to the construction of the Baptistery have survived, and passing references to a church of Saint John the Baptist cannot establish its existence because the former Cathedral, now known only as Santa Reparata ,

792-499: A large workshop that included Ghiberti’s sons Vittorio and Tommaso, Benozzo Gozzoli , Luca della Robbia , Michelozzo , and Donatello . Together they discovered how to meld different styles and to put into practice innovations like linear perspective and Masaccio’s monumental realism. There was likely also some exchange with Leon Battista Alberti , who sought a theoretical framework for pictorial art in these years, ultimately enshrined in his treatise De pictura . As Paolucci writes,

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864-453: A single composition across two doors reading bottom to top; and as two great columns reading left to right and top to bottom. In the 1320s, the powerful guild that had the patronage of the Baptistery, the Arte di Calimala , determined to embellish it with a set of doors for the south portal, through which parents bearing infants for baptism are believed to have entered. By 1329 they settled on

936-448: A smaller square scarsella or altar on the south side. The scarsella is axially positioned in the wall, and connected to the main space by an arched opening. The interior of the main space is articulated by a rhythmic system of pilasters , arches that emphasize the space's geometric unity. The pilasters are for purely visual purposes, and it was this break between real structure and the appearance of structure that constituted one of

1008-566: A sort of a large bag. Another example of a scarsella is the apse of the church of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Venice . Baptistery of Florence The Florence Baptistery , also known as the Baptistery of Saint John ( Italian : Battistero di San Giovanni ), is a religious building in Florence , Italy . Dedicated to the patron saint of the city, John the Baptist , it has been

1080-737: A wily old bird, accustomed to all the deceptions of the world, and remembering them half-humorously.” Several copies of the doors are held throughout the world. One such copy is held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie , New York. Another copy, made in the 1940s, is installed in Grace Cathedral , in San Francisco ; copies of the doors were also crafted for the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg , Russia ;

1152-425: Is also renowned for the works of art with which it is adorned, including its mosaics and its three sets of bronze doors with relief sculptures. Andrea Pisano led the creation of the south doors, while Lorenzo Ghiberti led the workshops that sculpted the north and east doors. Michelangelo said the east doors were so beautiful that “they might fittingly stand at the gates of Paradise.” The building also contains

1224-404: Is octagonal in plan, but finds directionality and a place for its altar thanks to the rectilinear scarsella on its western side. The octagon was a common shape for baptisteries since early Christian times. Other early examples are the fourth-century Battistero Paleocristiano excavated beneath Milan Cathedral and the fifth-century Lateran Baptistery . The eight-sidedness of these structures

1296-413: Is rendered to suggest the beauty of the limbs beneath, and the figures’ motions are harmonious within a coordinated space. The panels are included in a richly decorated gilt framework of foliage and fruit, many statuettes of prophets and 24 busts. Lorenzo Ghiberti once again includes a self-portrait, which to Kenneth Clark suggests that the “serious young man, intently contemplating his visions, has become

1368-660: Is that of the Cappellone degli Spagnoli in Santa Maria Novella, also in Florence , which served as a model for Filippo Brunelleschi to design the plans of the Sagrestia Vecchia of San Lorenzo and of the Pazzi Chapel . Brunelleschi studied a model of the chapel in which the base was square and the scarsella opened in the center of one of the walls, with the side dimension equal to one third of

1440-448: The Arte signed a contract with the 25-year-old Ghiberti, who would lead a workshop that included Donatello , Michelozzo , Paolo Uccello , and Masolino . Their work was largely finished by summer 1416, but Ghiberti would lead the project until the doors’ installation on Easter Sunday of 1424. The 21-year enterprise proved extremely expensive, equivalent to the annual Florentine defense budget and almost as costly as Florence’s purchase of

1512-531: The Badia a Settimo to prove the righteousness of the monks’ accusations. His survival made the bishop’s position untenable, and Mezzabarba left Florence that summer. A monumental new baptistery would likely have been seen as a way to restore the authority of the Florentine bishop and help ensure that he oversaw the communal baptism of Florentine infants on Holy Saturday , as canon law required. The references

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1584-608: The Church was created from humanity in an analogous manner. For George Robinson, on the other hand, the telling of the stories of Jacob and Esau , Joseph , the Battle of Jericho , and David and Goliath has political overtones: “if the Israelites were to survive… they had to be united despite conflict, and were obliged to allow power and authority to find its place in the hands of the young and untested.” A recent study emphasizes

1656-711: The Donation of Constantine , according to which the pope inherited the temporal authority of the Roman emperor , justifying his equality with or supremacy over the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany. If interest in antiquity had arisen in Florence organically, one would expect more Florentine Romanesque churches to cite ancient buildings. Instead, parts of the Baptistery completed only a generation or two later, such as

1728-731: The Harris Museum in Preston , United Kingdom ; and in 2017 for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Giorgio Vasari claimed to have seen models Ghiberti made for a third set of doors that he hoped would replace Andrea Pisano’s. The domed interior space, with columned niches on its imposing ground level and an apse creating directional emphasis, reprises the Pantheon . Monumental columns of

1800-592: The Museo del Bargello , are usually considered to mark the beginning of the Renaissance in Western art. Ghiberti received the commission, although it is uncertain whether the 34 judges unanimously declared him the winner, as he asserted in his Commentari , or whether they were deadlocked between him and Brunelleschi, as a biography of Brunelleschi written 80 years later claimed. In November 1403, representatives of

1872-438: The scarsella is a small apse with a rectangular or square plan which protrudes outside the main structure. The term scarsella , in ancient Florentine, means "purse", in particular the leather purse for money. A scarsella can be seen in the Baptistery of Florence which, initially built octagonally in plan, was then equipped with a smaller rectangular construction attached to the original building. Another medieval scarsella

1944-441: The tondos in the pendentives , the lunettes , the reliefs above the doors and the doors themselves. The smaller dome above the altar is decorated with astrological depictions of star constellations . The arrangement of the constellations is accurate enough to estimate the particular date they represent, although there has been disagreement on the intended date represented there. In 1911, Aby Warburg first made an attempt with

2016-490: The Baptistery has no parallels at all. This singularity has made the origins of the Baptistery a centuries-long enigma, with hypotheses that it was originally a Roman temple, an early Christian church built by Roman master masons, or (the current scholarly consensus) a work of 11th- or 12th-century “proto-Renaissance” architecture. To Filippo Brunelleschi , it was a near-perfect building that inspired his studies of perspective and his approach to architecture. The Baptistery

2088-412: The Baptistery in 1059; according to the other, a baptismal font was brought into the Baptistery in 1128. Scholars have struggled to make sense of two apparent markers of completion almost 70 years apart, many supposing one must be mistaken in whole or in part. In the 2020s archival research among the manuscripts of Del Migliore and a close associate revealed that neither claim is accurate: the Baptistery

2160-589: The Baptistery makes to the Pantheon support the hypothesis of the involvement of a pope . In the eleventh century, the Pantheon, converted to a church in 609, was officiated only on the most important holidays, and only for masses celebrated by the pope himself. Moreover, papal interest in the Roman empire was high. Pope Alexander II sponsored the construction of Sant'Alessandro Maggiore in Lucca, with ancient capitals and imitative medieval counterparts, and very likely

2232-520: The Baptistery, masterpieces of Gothic and Renaissance art, are now preserved in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo , opposite a reconstruction of the Cathedral facade as it would have appeared when the last of them was completed. Copies, made between 1990 and 2009, now hang at the Baptistery within the original door frames. Each set of doors presents chronological Biblical scenes in a different way — as separate doors, each reading across, top to bottom; as

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2304-452: The Baptist’s role as a prophet, the right door his fate as a martyr. In the lowest register are allegorical figures of the four cardinal virtues , fortitude, temperance, justice and prudence. The figures above them represent the three theological virtues — hope, faith, and charity — as well as humility, whose inclusion was perhaps inspired by the Baptist’s choice to live a life of privation in

2376-547: The Cathedral, would be moved to the north portal so that these could take their place. The stories depicted begin with the Creation of Adam and Eve and end with the meeting of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba . Beyond their literal meaning, they may embody the theological ideas of the future bishop of Florence, Antoninus . For example, the centrality of the creation of Eve in the first panel may refer to Antoninus’ idea that

2448-513: The Festival of Saint John held on June 24, still a legal holiday in Florence. In the past the Baptistery housed the insignia of Florence and the towns it conquered and offered a venue to honor individual achievement like victory in festival horse races. Dante Alighieri was baptized there and hoped, in vain, that he would “return as poet and put on, at my baptismal font, the laurel crown.” The city walls begun in 1285 may have been designed so that

2520-467: The baptistery would be at the exact center of Florence, like the temple at the center of the New Jerusalem prophesied by Ezekiel . The architecture of the Baptistery takes inspiration from the Pantheon , an ancient Roman temple , as observers have noted for at least 700 years, and yet it is also a highly original artistic achievement. The scholar Walter Paatz observed that the total effect of

2592-510: The chapel and with an area equal, therefore, to a one ninth of the entire chapel area. This scheme proved to be successful and was actively used by the great architects of the Renaissance, especially for centrally-planned buildings. An early example of a monumental scale is the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Carceri in Prato designed by Giuliano da Sangallo in which the presbyteral area composes

2664-413: The construction. The hypothesis dovetails with the masonry evidence and radiocarbon dating of charcoal excavated nearby that suggests a major building project took place at this time. An origin in this period would fit well with the historical context. In the 1060s, reformist Vallombrosian monks accused bishop Pietro Mezzabarba of Florence of simony , specifically of having obtained his office through

2736-455: The course of the 13th century, individual baptisms soon after birth became common, so less apparatus was necessary. Around 1370 a small font was commissioned, which is still in use today. The original font, disused, was dismantled in 1577 by Francesco I de' Medici to make room for grand-ducal celebrations, an act deplored by Florentines at the time. The Baptistery serves as a focus for the city’s most important religious celebrations, including

2808-488: The culminating scenes of his crucifixion and resurrection in the highest register. George Robinson writes that “Ghiberti’s Christ is a dignified, resigned, almost aloof Messiah, whose attitude and behavior have consistently an overtone of sadness and separateness.” In these doors Ghiberti and his workshop seem to move from a devotion to the International Gothic style to an embrace of Renaissance values. On

2880-409: The desert. The reliefs are characterized by small figures with a monumental presence. Emotion is measured but unmistakable, as in the scene of the Baptist’s anguished disciples putting him to rest. Although the quatrefoil borders may have been imposed by another artist involved in the project, Andrea Pisano generally finds ways to work within them. For example, the architecture and drapery rhythms in

2952-480: The doors, completed over a century later by the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s son Vittorio, show Adam and Eve after the Fall of Man and the infant Cain and Abel fighting, below flowers and fruits symbolic of the original sin that baptism could remove. Lorenzo Ghiberti completed two sets of doors for the Baptistery. The art historian Antonio Paolucci called the making of the first set “the most important event in

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3024-733: The entire city of Sansepolcro a few years later. Ghiberti’s salary was equivalent to that of a manager of a Medici bank. Above eight panels representing the Four Evangelists and the Church Fathers Saint Ambrose , Saint Jerome , Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine , the life of Christ from the New Testament is told in twenty panels reading from bottom to top, following the “upward path of salvation”. The eye goes first to scenes of Christ’s birth, rising to his baptism and his miracles, until reaching

3096-422: The evidence inherent in the building itself to the broader context. In the 1930s, Walter Horn ’s study of Florentine masonry technique (refinement of stone cutting, mortar application, course patterning) showed that the sandstone construction of the lower levels of the Baptistery was close to that of the church of Santi Apostoli and of the later portions of San Pier Scheraggio, documents about both of which support

3168-463: The faces that include a doorway. Within these arches are windows with monumental surrounds modeled after the aedicules inside the Pantheon . Several different marbles are used, principally white Carrara marble and a green-black serpentinite from Prato . The architecture of this church would serve as an important influence for Renaissance architects including Filippo Brunelleschi and Leone Battista Alberti . The zebra-stripe corners are not part of

3240-474: The first Renaissance funerary monument , by Donatello and Michelozzo . Florentines once believed that the Baptistery was originally a Roman temple dedicated to Mars , or a remnant of the city’s rebirth after the Ostrogoths ’ ravages. In the modern period skepticism mounted until these legends were abandoned in the nineteenth century, in part because excavations revealed that a very different structure,

3312-482: The first set of doors complete than the Arte di Calimala requested from the great humanist Leonardo Bruni a program for another set with stories from the Old Testament . Bruni envisioned at least 24 panels in a format similar to the other doors. Ghiberti, now widely recognized for his enormous talent, was awarded the commission at the beginning of 1425, and by 1429, when work began, had won his patrons over to

3384-511: The floor of the Baptistery form an inner octagon whose size is approximated by the innermost portion of the Baptistery pavement. The purpose of these walls is obscure, but scholars have suggested that they were part of a smaller baptistery that preceded the current one, that they enclosed a full-immersion basin, or that they held up a ring of columns like in the Lateran Baptistery or Santo Sepolcro, Pisa . Florence undoubtedly had

3456-402: The hand of the same architect, strengthening the case that the architect of the Baptistery came from the papal entourage in Rome. The presence on the Baptistery of a motif including a round-arched window flanked by windows with triangular tympani , also seen on the facade of the Basilica of San Salvatore, Spoleto , could possibly indicate that the architect had been to Umbria . The Baptistery

3528-673: The help of a Hamburg astronomer and concluded that the date was the July 9, 1422, the date of the consecration of the altar. Gertrud Bing later rejected this in favor of a calculation by Arthur Beer for July 6, 1439, the date of the closing session of the Council of Florence , in which the Articles of Union between Eastern and Western Christendom were signed by Latin and Greek delegates. More recent recalculation by Professor John L. Heilbron has independently confirmed this date and even estimated

3600-585: The history of Florentine art in the first quarter of the fifteenth century,” and the making of the second, “one of the great moments in the history of art.” In 1401, the Arte di Calimala asked seven Tuscan sculptors to make a relief of the Sacrifice of Isaac , promising that the most successful would receive a major commission: reliefs for a new set of doors on the east side of the Baptistery. The outstanding entries by Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi , now in

3672-446: The important novelties of Brunelleschi's work. The pilasters support an entablature , the only purpose of which is to divide the space into two equal horizontal zones. The upper zone features pendentives under the dome, another relative novelty, more typical of Byzantine architecture. The dome is actually an umbrella dome, composed of twelve vaults joined at the center. It was not an uncommon design and Brunelleschi may have learned

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3744-466: The interior gallery level, show a typically medieval delight in geometric and figurative ornament, foreign to the severe interior of the Pantheon. Stylistic similarities suggest that a single architect may have designed the Baptistery, Santi Apostoli , and San Miniato al Monte . The affinity of the plan of San Miniato (portion begun 1077) with that of the demolished church of Santa Maria in Portico (consecrated by Pope Gregory VII in 1073) could indicate

3816-452: The learned Ghiberti’s attempt to reconcile Biblical and classical history, for example including increasingly elaborate architectural structures, following Vitruvius ’ account in De architectura of the history of architecture. Dress also evolves from Abraham and Isaac’s plain robes to the ornately detailed clothing of Solomon and Sheba. Work on the doors lasted from 1429 until 1447 and involved

3888-400: The message of eternal life offered by baptism . The Baptistery has eight sides ornamented with classical architectural elements over marble incrustation marked by two-color geometric patterns. The rectilinear apse ( scarsella ) expands out of the west side. The other sides are each adorned with three blind arches, of equal size on the intercardinal faces, and with an expanded central arch on

3960-409: The most recent research, the baptistery may have been in use by the late 1080s, but construction would continue well into the 12th century. Giovanni Villani records that the lantern atop the dome was completed in 1150. It is the first known example of this element in the history of architecture. Excavations show that the building originally had a semicircular apse . Giuseppe Richa recorded that

4032-399: The one hand, they emphasize sinuous lines and work carefully within the medieval quatrefoil format, making few references to antiquity in most of the panels. Nonetheless, Ghiberti is an innovator, seeking to overcome the limitations of the format by implying a new sense of three-dimensionality through foreshortening, swelling drapery, differing levels of relief, and architecture angled away from

4104-628: The original design, but were added in 1293, as work on the new cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore began. They covered blocks of sandstone , the stone used for the building structure. The porphyry columns on either side of the “Gates of Paradise” were plundered by the Pisans in Majorca and given in gratitude to the Florentines in 1117 for protecting their city against Lucca while the Pisan fleet

4176-420: The papal throne 1073–1085). Although small, Florence was an important administrative and religious center, and these powerful figures would have been willing and able to sponsor a building as ambitious and costly as the Baptistery, which would otherwise seem out of reach for the city. Ranieri, the bishop of Florence appointed in 1072 or 1073 whose tomb has a place of honor inside the building, would have overseen

4248-474: The present scarsella was begun in 1202, but his stated archival source cannot be verified. The installation of the lantern in 1150 presupposes a broad dome, which likely would not have survived the removal of a semicircular apse from beneath it since "the chancel is indispensable for the stability of the whole dome, which would not remain standing if the chancel were not to exist". Thus the scarsella may actually date shortly before 1150. Thick walls beneath

4320-410: The project, as he later recalled proudly. The doors present twenty scenes retelling the life of the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, in gilded bronze, many clearly inspired by the fifteen scenes from his life depicted on the interior mosaic ceiling or the three scenes painted by Giotto in the recently-completed Peruzzi Chapel . George Robinson calls this a “visual epic.” The left door presents

4392-451: The scene of the Baptist’s funeral artfully confront the enclosing shape. For Anita Moskowitz, “Divine events are interpreted in the most human and down-to-earth terms, without ever sacrificing that sense of the exalted nature of the drama that lifts them into the realm of the spiritual.” Kenneth Clark notes that Andrea’s style is “profoundly human” and that whereas “Giotto’s men and women are types; Andrea’s are individuals.” The frame around

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4464-508: The story of Jacob and Esau , unfolding slowly from background (Rebecca praying about the twins jostling in her womb at the upper right) to the high-relief foreground (just off-center, Esau, cheated out of his birthright by his slightly younger twin, confronts his father Isaac ). The scene corresponds to many of the prescriptions that Alberti would offer in his treatise: it is constructed in an architectural setting seen in linear perspective, Corinthian capitals refer to ancient architecture, drapery

4536-468: The subject himself ; and above the south door, Vincenzo Danti 's Beheading of the Baptist (1569-70). Today, all three groups are in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo . Only the Baptism of Christ has been replaced by a copy, the spaces above the other two doors now being empty. Above the main two levels of the exterior, and set back from them, is an attic level, likely completed in the 1130s. It contains

4608-517: The technique from a visit to Milan or other places where such domes existed. What was new was the way in which the dome was integrated into the proportion of the space below. The use of color is restricted to grey for the stone and white for the wall. The correct use of the Corinthian order for the capitals was also new and a testament to Brunelleschi's studies of ancient Roman architecture . The decorative details are by Donatello , who designed

4680-514: The time of day at about noon. In the center is the sarcophagus of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici and Piccarda Bueri , by Buggiano . Set along one of the walls is the porphyry and bronze sarcophagus of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici by Verrocchio . [REDACTED] Media related to Sagrestia Vecchia at Wikimedia Commons 43°46′28.97″N 11°15′13.13″E  /  43.7747139°N 11.2536472°E  / 43.7747139; 11.2536472 Scarcella (architecture) In architecture,

4752-464: The viewing plane. And in a few panels assumed to have been made later, like the Flagellation, Ghiberti and his team show a strong interest in antique sculpture and architecture. The panels are surrounded by a framework of foliage in the door case and gilded busts of prophets and sibyls, as well as a self-portrait of the middle-aged Ghiberti, at the intersections between the panels. No sooner were

4824-411: The workshop that produced these doors was “the meeting point of differing cultural traditions and stylistic experiences, mediated and transfigured by the refined eclecticism of Lorenzo Ghiberti, by his extraordinary capacity for cultivating both the antique and the modern at the same time, for working within the gothic tradition yet also within renaissance trends”. One of the most impressive panels tells

4896-431: The “only error” Brunelleschi said he could find in the building: a horizontal entablature that bends to become vertical, contrary to the practices of classical architecture. Incorporated into the revetment of the scarsella is a fragment of a Roman sarcophagus . Showing a grape harvest and a ship presumably loaded with wine, it is thought to have been made for a wine merchant. The three monumental sets of doors made for

4968-535: Was conquering the island. As a painted cassone in the Bargello shows, they were originally freestanding in Piazza del Duomo. Badly damaged in a storm in 1424, they were placed in their current location a few years later. The cassone also shows the medieval decorative scheme, in which a group of statues by Tino di Camaino surmounted each door. The surviving statues are now in the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo , with

5040-505: Was not consecrated in 1059, and no baptismal font was introduced in 1128. This finding is not entirely surprising; historians started to notice errors in Firenze città nobilissima soon after it was published, and in the 20th century, a philologist even demonstrated that Del Migliore had falsified the existence of a medieval Florentine named Salvino degli Armati . Determining a date for the Baptistery, therefore, depends entirely on relating

5112-561: Was once also referred to as the church of Saint John the Baptist. The overwhelming scholarly consensus today, based on its construction technique and architectural style, is that the origins of the Baptistery are to be found in the 11th or 12th century. Developing a more precise dating has been difficult because of two confounding indications in Ferdinando Leopoldo Del Migliore’s Firenze città nobilissima (1684). According to one, Pope Nicholas II consecrated

5184-460: Was significant. As Timothy Verdon writes, “while man’s earthly life unfolds in units of finite time like the week with its seven days, in Baptism believers pass over into eternal life, beyond measurable time. They enter into the ‘eighth day’.” Although the plan of the Pantheon is circular, it can be divided into eight slices, and thus lends itself to reuse in an octagonal building. According to

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