Door of the Martyrs, Bronze relief sculpture in the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo Basilica, Florence, Italy.
The Porta dei Martiri is one of two bronze doors Donatello made for the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo, measuring 235 by 109 cm. Each of its two leaves carries five square panels framed by festoons, rosettes and palmette friezes, with two figures facing each other in every panel. The handles are shaped as two twisted ropes.
Created by Donatello between 1434 and 1442 for the Medici family's private chapel in San Lorenzo Basilica, this door represents one of the earliest examples of Renaissance bronze relief sculpture in Florence.
The left leaf is called the Door of the Martyrs because most figures carry the palm of martyrdom; the right leaf is the Door of the Apostles. Donatello set ten square panels between borders of festoons, rosettes and palmette friezes, and made the handles as two twisted ropes. Contemporaries disliked the figures: Filarete, in his treatise of 1461-1464, advised against apostles "che paiono schermidori" — that look like fencers.
The doors sit in the Sagrestia Vecchia, the Medici funerary chapel reached from the left transept of San Lorenzo; access follows the basilica's visiting arrangements. The left leaf is the one called of the Martyrs, recognisable by figures holding the martyr's palm. Look for the twisted rope handles at the centre and the stone frames Donatello cut for the doorway.
Unlike other relief sculptures of its time, this door features no repeated compositional schemes across its panels, with each scene maintaining complete artistic individuality even in the most crowded narrative moments.
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