Art: NEW DOORS FOR SAINT PETER'S

ONE of Christendom's greatest monuments—St. Peter's in Rome—is never quite completed. Among the best present-day artists working to finish it is a self-taught, 45-year-old sculptor from Milan named Giacomo Manzù. Four years ago, Manzù won a competition to do bronze bas-reliefs for the "Doorway of Death" (opened only for funerals) at one side of the Basilica. Now his scale study is at last complete (see cut), and he hopes that by devoting all his working time to the project he will have the doors themselves done in two more years.

The eight lower panels...