Coming to Florence, Ghiberti found himself opposed to six of the best sculptors of Italy. There was Filippo Brunelleschi, who afterwards became famous as the architect of the dome of the Florentine Cathedral. There was also Jacopo della Quercia, the Sienese sculptor, to whom we shall refer again. Each competitor received “four tables of brass,” and a year was given to prepare a panel representing the “Sacrifice of Isaac.” At the end of the time it was evident that the contest had resolved itself into a duel between Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. Nor was there any doubt as to the winner. The panels of both men can still be seen side by side in the National Museum at Florence. They witness to the truth of Ghiberti’s boast: “The palm of victory was conceded to me by all the judges and by those who competed with me. Universally the glory was given to me without any exception.” The commission was dated November 23, 1403. The Merchants’ Guild agreed to pay all expenses—the sum eventually expended upon the pair of gates being 22,000 ducats. The wages of his assistants, who included Donatello, Gozzoli and Uccello, were defrayed by the Guild. Lorenzo himself received 200 florins a year, for which he agreed to give all his time. He was bound to design the panels and execute “the nudes, draperies, and all the artistic parts with his own hand.” Upon the completion of the first pair of gates, those executed by Andrea Pisano (1331-1334) were taken down and Ghiberti’s gates erected in the place of honour facing the Cathedral. Nor was this all. Twenty-five years had been spent already. Yet he was ordered to furnish another pair—those which Michael Angelo called “The Gates of Paradise.” They were unveiled in 1452, when they in their turn displaced the earlier gates of Ghiberti.