Italian Renaissance Artist
GHIBERTI
1378-1455
ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ARTIST
Lorenzo Ghiberti was born in 1378 c., in Pelago, Italy and died Dec. 1, 1455 in Florence. Ghiberti was an important early Italian Renaissance sculptor, whose doors (Gates of Paradise 1425-52) for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art in the Quattrocento. Other works include three bronze statues for Or San Michele (1416–25) and the reliefs for Siena cathedral (1417–27). Ghiberti also wrote I Commentarii, three treatises on art history and theory from antiquity to his time.
Ghiberti’s mother had married Cione Ghiberti in 1370, and they lived in Pelago, near Florence; at some point she went to Florence and lived there as the common-law wife of a goldsmith named Bartolo di Michele. They were married in 1406 after Cione died, and it was in their home that Lorenzo Ghiberti spent his youth. It is not certain which man was Ghiberti’s father, for he claimed each as his father at separate times. But throughout his early years, Lorenzo considered himself Bartolo’s son, and it was Bartolo who trained the boy as a goldsmith. Ghiberti also received training as a painter; as he reported in the autobiographical part of his writings, he left Florence in 1400 with a painter to work in the town of Pesaro for its ruler, Sigismondo Malatesta.
Ghiberti returned quickly to his home city when he heard, in 1401, that a competition was being held for the commission to make a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence. He and six other artists were given the task of representing the biblical scene of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in a bronze relief of quatrefoil shape, following the tradition of the first set of doors produced by Andrea Pisano (1330–36). The entry panels of Ghiberti and of Filippo Brunelleschi are the sole survivors of the contest. Ghiberti’s panels displayed a graceful and lively composition executed with a mastery of the
1378-1455
ITALIAN RENAISSANCE ARTIST
Lorenzo Ghiberti was born in 1378 c., in Pelago, Italy and died Dec. 1, 1455 in Florence. Ghiberti was an important early Italian Renaissance sculptor, whose doors (Gates of Paradise 1425-52) for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence are considered one of the greatest masterpieces of Italian art in the Quattrocento. Other works include three bronze statues for Or San Michele (1416–25) and the reliefs for Siena cathedral (1417–27). Ghiberti also wrote I Commentarii, three treatises on art history and theory from antiquity to his time.
Ghiberti’s mother had married Cione Ghiberti in 1370, and they lived in Pelago, near Florence; at some point she went to Florence and lived there as the common-law wife of a goldsmith named Bartolo di Michele. They were married in 1406 after Cione died, and it was in their home that Lorenzo Ghiberti spent his youth. It is not certain which man was Ghiberti’s father, for he claimed each as his father at separate times. But throughout his early years, Lorenzo considered himself Bartolo’s son, and it was Bartolo who trained the boy as a goldsmith. Ghiberti also received training as a painter; as he reported in the autobiographical part of his writings, he left Florence in 1400 with a painter to work in the town of Pesaro for its ruler, Sigismondo Malatesta.
Ghiberti returned quickly to his home city when he heard, in 1401, that a competition was being held for the commission to make a pair of bronze doors for the Baptistery of the cathedral of Florence. He and six other artists were given the task of representing the biblical scene of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in a bronze relief of quatrefoil shape, following the tradition of the first set of doors produced by Andrea Pisano (1330–36). The entry panels of Ghiberti and of Filippo Brunelleschi are the sole survivors of the contest. Ghiberti’s panels displayed a graceful and lively composition executed with a mastery of the