The young Ghiberti impressed the judges with his design and the fact that, save for the fi gure of Isaac, Ghiberti’s entry was cast in one piece.. Art historians have struggled to date t
Trang 1of such an important commission drew a number of
en-tries from noted artists including Jacopo della Quercia
and Filippo Brunelleschi
The young Ghiberti impressed the judges with his
design and the fact that, save for the fi gure of Isaac,
Ghiberti’s entry was cast in one piece A work that
required fewer castings required less bronze and was
cheaper to produce Ghiberti’s ability as a caster was
cited by Giorgio Vasari in his Lives of the Painters,
Sculptors & Architects as his reason for placing
Ghib-erti in front of Donatello and Brunelleschi as a
sculp-tor Art historians have struggled to date the beginning
of the Renaissance, and many set it at 1401 and the
competition for the Baptistery in Florence because of
Ghiberti’s attention to illustrating depth, the use of
clas-sical references such as the nude Isaac, and the
impor-tance of patronage
While the competition was to illustrate the Old
Tes-tament, the subject was changed to the New Testament
once Ghiberti was awarded the contract Ghiberti’s
winning Abraham panel was included in the third set of
doors completed in 1452 The door contains 28
quatre-foils in seven rows of four scenes The lowest two rows
illustrate the four Evangelists and the four Fathers of
the Church, while the New Testament scenes begin with
the Annunciation Now known as the North Doors, the
commission for the New Testament scenes was
com-pleted in 1425
In addition to the Baptistery, Ghiberti received
importance commissions for the niches at
Orsanmi-chele The Orsanmichele in Florence is an unusual
building that served both as a granary for the city and
as a shrine The outside of the building contained
nich-es that were assigned to various guilds to decorate with
statues of their patron saint The Calimala guild
com-missioned a bronze sculpture of their patron, John the
Baptist, for their niche Standing nearly eight feet tall
the completed John the Baptist exhibits naturalism in
its stance and the drape of the clothing that is one of
the hallmarks of the Renaissance art In 1419 the Arte
del Cambio, the banker’s guild, commissioned for their
niche a bronze St Matthew noted for its classical style
and exquisite gilding
In 1425 Ghiberti returned to the Baptistery to
work on the North Doors commonly referred to as
the Gates of Paradise Focusing on the Old Testament,
Ghiberti abandoned the preferred quatrefoil plan of
partially gilded 28 scenes in favor of 10 fully gilded
square scenes In addition, in his own Commentaries
(c 1450–55) Ghiberti wrote regarding the doors: “I
strove to imitate nature as clearly as I could, and with
all the perspective I could produce, to have excellent compositions with many fi gures.” With the comple-tion of the Old Testament series, Ghiberti retired in 1452
See also Italian Renaissance
Further reading: Brucker, Gene A Renaissance Florence
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983; Hartt,
Fred-erick, and David G Wilkins History of Italian Renais-sance New York: Harry N Abrams, 2003; Kleiner, Fred S., Christin J Mamiya, and Richard G Tansey Gardner’s Art Through the Ages Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2003; Mur-ray, Peter and Linda The Art of the Renaissance New York: Thames & Hudson, 1985; Stokstad, Marilyn Art History New York: Harry N Abrams, 2002; Vasari, Giorgio Lives
of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects New York: Alfred
A Knopf, 1996
Abbe Allen DeBolt
Ghiberti, Lorenzo 141
Ghiberti rose to prominence in 1401, winning a competition with his bronze door designs for the Baptistery in Florence.