The sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti had laboured for fifty years to create the bronze doors of the Baptistry, which Michelangelo was to describe as "The Gates of Paradise".
V zgodnjih 1400 arhitekt Brunelleschi raziskuje ostanke antičnih stavb v Rimu in ustvari dve cerkvi "San Lorenzo" in "Santo Spiritu", ki poosebljata klasične zapovedi.