If you are the guild that makes its wealth from the major cloth trade in Europe, especially from wool, the display of cloth alone would be a reason for giving the prize of the competition to Ghiberti.

Lorenzo Ghiberti

Ghiberti’s

Alhazen

1378

Sculpture

Dece

Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise The 17-foot-tall gilded doors, weighing 4 1/2 tons, are casts of the original doors created in the 15th-century workshop of sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti for the east facade of the Baptistery of the Duomo (cathedral) in Florence, Italy.

bronze

The Gates have been praised by generations of artists and art historians for their compelling portrayal of scenes from the Old Testament. Over time, the seventeen-foot-tall, three-ton bronze doors became an icon of Renaissance, one of the most famous works of art in the world.

Michelangelo is said to have pronounced the three-ton, 20-foot-tall doors grand enough to adorn the entrance to paradise, and so they became known as “The Gates of Paradise.” They have for centuries been considered one of the masterpieces of Western art.

It took Ghiberti 21 years to complete these doors. These gilded bronze doors consist of twenty-eight panels, with twenty panels depicting the life of Christ from the New Testament. The eight lower panels show the four evangelists and the Church Fathers Saint Ambrose, Saint Jerome, Saint Gregory and Saint Augustine.

: a part of a church or formerly a separate building used for baptism.

The doors were moved to the South (from the East side) in 1452. Each door has 14 square panels. Twenty of the panels depict events from the life of John the Baptist while eight at the bottom are personifications of virtues. The foliate borders around the door are from a later date, by Vittorio Ghiberti, son of Lorenzo.

three workers

Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli

Brunelleschi, Filippo (1377–1446) Florentine architect, first of the great Renaissance architects and a pioneer of perspective. He influenced many later architects, including Michelangelo. In 1420, he began to design the dome of Florence Cathedral, the largest since the Hagia Sophia.

Leonardo da Vinci

10 of the Most Important Renaissance Figures

• Lorenzo de’ Medici. Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449-1492) was a member of the Medici family, one of the wealthiest European families in history and the de facto rulers of Florence.
• Leonardo da Vinci.
• Michelangelo.
• Nicolaus Copernicus.
• Petrarch.
• Raphael.
• Galileo Galilei.
• Michel de Montaigne.