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Door of the Apostles

Door of the Apostles is one of the two bronze doors Donatello made for the Old Sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. Measuring 235 x 109 cm, it is arranged in two leaves with five panels on each leaf, and its execution dates to 1434–1443. The Old Sacristy was the private funeral chapel of the Medici family, built by Filippo Brunelleschi between 1421 and 1428 and decorated by Donatello from 1428–29 onward. The doors were not appreciated by their contemporaries, who found them too expressive. Donatello’s composition has been linked to the doors of the Baptistery of Pisa and other earlier models.

Relief panel from Donatello\'s Door of the Apostles showing two robed haloed figures, one holding a book and the other a staff.
Donatello’s Door of the Apostles: a bronze relief panel with two haloed figures in robed dress.
1439 © · Public domain
Door of the Apostles bronze relief showing two haloed, robed men facing each other as one hands an object to the other.
Bronze relief panel from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles, with two haloed figures facing one another.
1439 © · Public domain
Bronze relief panel from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles showing two bearded robed figures, one holding a cross and the other a staff and book.
Detail of Donatello’s Door of the Apostles: a bronze relief panel with two robed figures framed by a decorative border.
1439 © · Public domain
Bronze relief from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles showing two haloed robed figures, one holding a key and the other a sword and book.
Bronze relief from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles, depicting two haloed figures with traditional attributes.
1439 © · Public domain
Bronze relief panel from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles showing two haloed men in drapery, one holding a book and facing the other with an open hand.
A close-up of a bronze relief panel from Donatello’s Door of the Apostles, showing two haloed figures in classical drapery.
1439 © · Public domain

Identification

TitleDoor of the Apostles
Original titleLa Porta degli Apostoli
Alternative titleDoor of the Doctrine
TypeRight bronze door of a pair

Creator

ArtistDonatello

Historical context

Date1434–1443
Commissioned forthe Medici family’s private funerary chapel in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, Florence
Construction contextmade after the Sagrestia Vecchia was built by Filippo Brunelleschi between 1421 and 1428

Discovery and provenance

Commissionersprivate citizens of the Medici family

Location and ownership

Current locationOld Sacristy (Sagrestia Vecchia), Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence
Architectural settingentrance to two small service rooms, one for the lavabo and one for storing candles
Relation to chapel decorationpart of a decorative program that also included enormous stuccoes and numerous saints, completing the chapel’s religious cycle

Physical characteristics

Dimensions235 × 109 cm
Structuretwo leaves with five panels on each leaf
Decorative schemeten square panels separated by a border of festoons, rosettes, and palmette friezes
Handlestwo intertwined ropes

Materials

Frame materialstone frames in pietra di macigno
Materialbronze

Appearance

Depicted figuresApostles, Church Fathers, and saints
Figure treatmentfigures shown without a background
Stylistic characterhighly expressive and strongly three-dimensional
Spatial treatmentfigures often project from the relief frame, leaning on it, embracing it, or disappearing behind it
Visual comparisontheir isolated monumentality recalls the stucco lunette of Saints Cosmas and Damian

Iconography and meaning

Main themethe multiplicity of forms of human interaction in intellectual and religious dispute
Identification of figuresthe attributes generally allow the figures to be identified correctly

History and restoration

Contemporary receptionnot appreciated by contemporaries because they were judged too expressive
Filarete’s commentin his Treatise on Architecture (1461–1464), Filarete advised readers not to make apostles like Donatello’s in the sacristy door of San Lorenzo, saying they “seem like pullers”

Significance

Art-historical significanceprestigious and costly objects normally reserved for elite patrons; commission by private citizens was highly unusual
Number of bronze doors by Donatellothe only bronze doors Donatello created in his long career, though he was commissioned for others he never had time to make
Stylistic influenceKaufmann and Janson proposed influence from the apostles in the Pisa Baptistery door, the doors by Bonanno in Pisa Cathedral, and perhaps early Christian ivory diptychs
Scholarly datingJanson dated the doors to before 1492, before Agostino di Duccio’s signed Scenes from the Life of Saint Geminianus in Modena Cathedral, which appears derived from Donatello’s doors
Scholarly hypothesisKaufmann hypothesized, on stylistic grounds, that the Door of the Apostles was created first