Step into the world of Lorenzo Ghiberti, the visionary goldsmith and sculptor who transformed bronze into light. Beginning at Orsanmichele, we trace his footsteps along Via Calzaiuoli, once alive with the clang of chisels and the glow of his workshop furnace. Here, we explore how a young craftsman shaped a new language of Renaissance sculpture.
As we walk toward the Baptistery and into the Palazzo Vecchio, Ghiberti’s masterpiece — the Gates of Paradise — becomes our guide to a city where faith, art, and innovation converged. We’ll uncover stories of the bronze foundries, the rivalries and triumphs behind the doors, and how their gilded panels came to embody Florence itself.
The tour concludes inside Palazzo Vecchio at the Pneuma Foundation’s and Galleria Frilli's reimagining of the Gates, where past and present meet in a dialogue of form, devotion, and vision. Replicas of Ghiberti's ten pannels are displayed along side the works of 37 contemporary artists who are inspired by the timeless stories portrayed in the Gates of Paradise.
About your Guide:
Dr. Alexandria Brown-Hedjazi is an art historian and professor of the Florentine Renaissance, living and teaching in Florence. She holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University, and is an Associate Scholar at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. She is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and a Hoover Institution Fellowship at Stanford University. Her work is devoted to experiential learning—studying art in front of the masterpieces themselves—and to exploring how the Renaissance can help us understand the present moment. As a professor, researcher, and curator, she brings this approach to life through her private, high-end intellectual tours of Florence, designed to connect past and present through art, architecture, and ideas.
