North Doors: Self-Portrait
by GHIBERTI, Lorenzo, Gilded bronze
The panels on the North Doors are divided by latticework enriched by varied floral ornament and by individual medallion heads. As in Andrea Pisano’s portal, the figures, architecture and landscape details are gilded and gleam against the dark background. Ghiberti signed his work OPUS LAURENTII FLORENTINI above the scenes of the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi; the head above-left of the signature may be presumed to be a self-portrait, that above-right to be his son, Vittorio Ghiberti I.