Art: The Door of Death

Renaissance Sculptor Antonio Filarete completed the massive central doors of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome more than five centuries ago. His bronze doors were flanked, somewhat incongruously, by plain oak ones—and have been ever since. Last week the Vatican got around to the flanking doors, commissioned two traditionalist Italian sculptors named Alfredo Biagini and Venanzo Crocetti to replace them with bronze bas-reliefs celebrating the history of the church. Critics mildly approved the Vatican’s conservative choices, raised a chorus of hurrahs when they learned that it had also commissioned Giacomo Manzu, a controversial modern, to do a side door.

Used only for funerals and known as the “Door of Death,” Manzu’s door is off to the left of the others. The assignment, exulted Manzu, was “the best of the three. The other doors will always be open, but mine will remain closed so everyone can see it.”

All three artists had submitted clay sketches to a competition jury consisting of four churchmen and three lay art experts, had been selected as the winners in a field of 76 contestants. The jury had little trouble picking Biagini and Crocetti, but Manzu’s case was different.

At once simpler and subtler than the others, Manzu had modeled his door in very shallow, incised bas-relief to achieve an effect of depth through drawing and flat planes. The large left-hand panel of his door showed such great teacher-saints as John the Baptist, Augustine, Benedict, Ignatius and John Bosco. The right-hand panel included such confessor-and martyr-saints as Francis of Assisi, Dominic and Joan of Arc.

Three years ago, Manzu was reproved by the Pope for modeling crucifixions in which all the figures were shown nude. Though his new figures were fully clothed, some Vatican officials still raised objections. “The idea of putting a woman [St. Joan] in an armored suit,” huffed one elderly monsignor, “may be nice for the cinema but not for St. Peter’s.”

A nonclerical member of the jury, 60-year-old Alberto Gerardi, director of the Rome Art Institute, finally won approval for Manzu. His work, Gerardi argued, “corresponds to the esthetic . . . requirements of our times. Neither the church . . . nor art in general can stop at positions reached centuries ago.”

At 42, Manzu ranks with Marino Marini (TIME, Feb. 27) as Italy’s top sculptor. The stocky, intensely religious Milanese never went to art school. A stucco worker, he turned to sculpture 20 years ago and found he could make a living teaching what he had never studied. Manzu hopes to complete his Vatican commission in four years, and that it will “resist the centuries.” Says he: “I would give all my blood for this door.”