usually resorted when confronted with a novel subject; devising new compositions was not part of their training. Some scenes adapt subjects from the life of Christ and other models. The left door shows his early life and life in Christian territory; the right one his missionary activities, apparently ignoring those outside modern Poland. Their iconography "clearly shows they were made as a political statement". Subjects of the panels The sequence starts from the bottom of the left door, going upwards, then to the right door going down. Adalbert ("he") is the centre of all scenes. 1) His birth and baptism, in two scenes 2) As a sick child he is saved by being placed on an altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary 3) His parents place him in the monastery at Magdeburg at his request 4) He prays before a shrine (with knocker) 5) Emperor Otto II gives him his bishop's crozier, which happened at Verona 6) He expels a demon from a possessed man 7) He has a vision of Christ telling him to save Christians from slavery by the Jewish traders 8) He pleads with the Duke of Bohemia for the release of Christians slaves by their Jewish masters 9) The accident of the wine pitcher - when he dropped one it did not break 10) He lands in Gdańsk by ship (top of right door) 11) He makes conversions there 12) He preaches 13) He says Mass on the morning of his death, with hostile Prussians on the right 14) He is martyred by two men, while his companions watch 15) His body is exposed in the open, with his severed head on a stake; an eagle guards it (with knocker) 16) His remains are bought by the Polish ruler from the Prussians, for their weight in gold 17) His remains are taken back to Gniezno 18) His remains are buried in Gniezno Cathedral (bottom of right door) See also Florence Baptistery doors Notes References Campbell, Gordon, The Grove Encyclopedia of Decorative Arts, Volume 2, "Door", p. 318, Oxford University Press US, 2006, , online Calkins, Robert G.; Monuments of Medieval Art, Dutton, 1979, Nesbitt, Alexander, On the Bronze Doors in the Cathedral of Gnesen, in The Archaeological Journal, London, Volume 9, 1852? online Swarzenski, Hanns. Monuments of Romanesque Art; The Art of Church Treasures in North-Western Europe, Faber and Faber, 1974, Zofia Kurnatowska, U źródeł Polski,