by Kurt Wenner
[Yemen Update 40(1998):58]
In the summer of 1996, former AIYSPresident Kurt Wenner spent some time in Florence at the EuropeanUniversity Institute conducting research on Muslim immigrants toEurope. He sends along the following information for Yemen Updatereaders...
One of the major sights in contemporaryFlorence is the Baptistry, which stands opposite the Duomo &emdash;the major cathedral of Florence, which is the fourth largest buildingin Christendom (after St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in Rome, andthe Duomo of Milan). The Baptistry was believed to have been a pagantemple dedicated to Mars, and excavations have confirmed that it was,in fact, built upon Roman foundations dating back to the firstcentury C.E. In its present octagonal shape, and with itscontemporary facade, it was consecrated to John the Baptist in 1128.At the beginning of the 14th century, it was decided to replace thefirst set of doors. An artist named Andrea Pisano designed andcompleted the first set of doors in bronze and gold-leaf in1338.
The next set of doors was designed byLorenzo Ghilberti. He spent nearly 25 years on the task: 28 panelsdepicting the life of Christ. The Florentines were so pleased withthe set completed in 1427 that they commissioned a second set. Thistime Ghilberti set out to depict, in ten panels, the most importantevents/themes from the Bible. What those of us interested in Yemenare likely to find of more than passing interest is that of those tenpanels (which included such obvious choices as the creation of Adamand Eve, the story of Noah's Ark, the story of Abraham, episodes fromthe life of Moses, etc.), Ghilberti chose as the theme of his tenthpanel the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. Of course, asone can see, the scene takes place in a typical Renaissancearchitectural environment and in typical Renaissance dress.Nevertheless, the doors, considered one of the jewels of Renaissancesculpture, helped to keep alive the story of the Queen of Sheba inthe minds of contemporary Europeans, and may, indirectly, thereforehave contributed to the long-term interest which Italian commercialand scientific communities had in Yemen right into the 20thcentury.