re,
he had followed their directions and had made it with that ornament
which goes round the figures, and which encircles the framework of both
parts of the door, as in the one of Andrea Pisano; but on seeing how
greatly Lorenzo had surpassed him, the Consuls determined to remove that
of Andrea from its position in the centre, and to place it in the
doorway that is opposite to the Misericordia, and to commission Lorenzo
to make a new door to be placed in the centre, looking to him to put
forth the greatest effort of which he was capable in that art. And they
placed themselves in his hands, saying that they gave him leave to make
it as he pleased, and in whatsoever manner he thought it would turn out
as ornate, as rich, as perfect, and as beautiful as it could be made or
imagined; nor was he to spare time or expense, to the end that, even as
he had surpassed all other sculptors up to his own time, he might
surpass and excel all his own previous works.

Lorenzo began the said work, putting therein all the knowledge that he
could; wherefore he divided the said door into ten squares, five on each
side, so that the spaces enclosing the scenes were one braccio and a
third in extent, and round them, to adorn the framework that surrounds
the scenes, there are niches--upright, in that part of the
door--containing figures in almost full-relief, twenty in number and all
most beautiful, such as a nude Samson, who, embracing a column, with a
jawbone in his hand, displays a perfection as great as can be shown by
anything made in the time of the ancients, in their figures of Hercules,
whether in bronze or in marble; and to this a Joshua bears witness, who,
in the act of speaking, appears to be really addressing his army;
besides many prophets and sibyls, all of which he adorned with various
manners of draperies over their shoulders, and with head-dresses, hair,
and other adornments; not to mention twelve figures which are lying down
in the niches that go horizontally along the ornament of the scenes. At
the intersections of the corners, in certain medallions, he made heads
of women, of youths, and of old men, to the number of thirty-four; among
which, in the middle of the said door, near the place where he engraved
his own name, is the portrait of his father Bartoluccio, who is the
oldest of them, while the youngest is his son Lorenzo himself, the
master of the whole work; besides an infinite quantity of foliage,
mouldings, and other