Contentious Beginnings: Brunelleschi and Ghiberti

Early Renaissance Italy

Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, Italy, dedicated 1059

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Quatrefoil

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

The body

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

The body

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

The body - Antiquity

Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

The body - Antiquity

Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Emotional drama

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

The Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for north doors, Baptistery of Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, 1401–1402, 1’ 9” x 1’ 5”, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence.

Composition (arrangement of forms to direct eye, movement, space, proportion / scale)

Filippo Brunelleschi Lorenzo Ghiberti

Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, 1425-52, gilt bronze, east doors, Baptistery, Florence

Ghiberti, Gates of Paradise, 1425-52, gilt bronze, east doors, Baptistery, Florence

SimultaneousNarrative

Ghiberti, Jacob and Esau, Gates of

Paradise, 1425-1452Baptistery, Florence

Forms (objects, their physical and emotional features, line, color, volume, mass)

Composition (arrangement of forms to direct eye, movement, space, perspective, proportion / scale)

Ghiberti, Jacob and Esau, Gates of Paradise, 1425-1452 Baptistery, Florence

Lorenzo Ghiberti, Commentarii (Florence, begun 1447)

The stories, which had numerous figures in them, were from the Old Testament. With every proportion observed in them, I strove to imitate nature as closely as I could, and with all the perspective I could produce [to have] excellent compositions rich with many figures. In some scenes I placed about a hundred figures, in some less, and in some, more. There were ten storiesall [sunk] in frames because the eye from a distance measures and interprets the scenes in such a way that they appear round [plastic]. The scenes are in the lowest relief and the figures are seen in the planes; those that are near appear large, those in the distance small, as they do in reality. I executed this entire work with these principles.

Forms (objects, their physical and emotional features, line, color, volume, mass)

Composition (arrangement of forms to direct eye, movement, space, perspective, proportion / scale)

Ghiberti, Jacob and Esau, Gates of Paradise, 1425-1452 Baptistery, Florence

Forms (objects, their physical and emotional features, line, color, volume, mass)

Composition (arrangement of forms to direct eye, movement, space, perspective, proportion / scale)

One-point LinearPerspective

Orthogonals

Ghiberti, Jacob and Esau, Gates of Paradise, 1425-1452 Baptistery, Florence

One-Point Linear Perspective

Orthogonals

The Rise of the Individual Artist