The Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) made his name through the design and construction of two sets of massive bronze doors for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral. They were recognised as exceptional from the very beginning: Michelangelo even called second set the Gates of Paradise. Each of its 10 bronze panels is regarded as a masterpiece of Early Renaissance art in its own right. Creating the first baptistery doors This first pair of doors (left above), on which Donatello, and other Early Renaissance sculptors also worked, took from 1403 to 1424 to complete, but impressed the powers-that-be so much that they commissioned a second pair. These took even longer to finish: 27 years (1435 to 1452), even though there were again numerous distinguished assistants, including Donatello, Michelozzo, and Luca della Robbia. The doors were so magnificent, however, that it was quickly decided that they should be placed on the east side of the baptistery, facing the cathedral. Their fame was assured when Michelangelo dubbed them The Gates of Paradise.