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GHIBERTI, LORENZO (137$–1455)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 921 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GHIBERTI, LORENZO (137$–1455) , See also:Italian sculptor, was See also:born at See also:Florence in 1378. He learned the See also:trade of a See also:goldsmith under his See also:father Ugoccione, commonly called Cione, and his stepfather Bartoluccio; but the goldsmith's See also:art at that See also:time included all varieties of plastic arts, and required from those who devoted themselves to its higher branches a See also:general and profound know-ledge of See also:design and colouring. In the See also:early See also:stage of his See also:artistic career Ghiberti was best known as a painter in See also:fresco, and when Florence was visited by the See also:plague he repaired to See also:Rimini, where he executed a highly prized fresco in the See also:palace of the See also:sovereign Pandolfo Malatesta. He was recalled from Rimini to his native See also:city by the urgent entreaties of his stepfather Bartoluccio, who informed him that a competition was to be opened for designs of a second See also:bronze See also:gate in the See also:baptistery, and that he would do wisely to return to Florence and take See also:part in this See also:great artistic contest. The subject for the artists was the See also:sacrifice of See also:Isaac; and the competitors were required to observe in their See also:work a certain conformity to the first bronze gate of the baptistery, executed by See also:Andrea See also:Pisano about See also:loo years previously. Of the six designs presented by different Italian artists, those of See also:Donatello, See also:Brunelleschi and Ghiberti were pronounced the best, and of the three Brunelleschi's and Ghiberti's See also:superior to the third, and of such equal merit that the See also:thirty-four See also:judges with whom the decision was See also:left entrusted the See also:execution of the work to the See also:joint labour of the two See also:friends. Brunelleschi, however, withdrew from the contest. The first of his two bronze See also:gates for the baptistery occupied Ghiberti twenty years. Ghiberti brought to his task a deep religious feeling and the striving after a high poetical ideal which are not to be found in the See also:works of Donatello, though in See also:power of characterization the second sculptor often stands above the first. Like Donatello, he seized every opportunity of studying the remains of See also:ancient art; but he sought and found purer See also:models for See also:imitation than Donatello, through his excavations and studies in See also:Rome, had been able to secure. The See also:council of Florence, which met during the most active See also:period of Ghiberti's artistic career, not only secured him the patronage of the pontiff, who took part in the council, but enabled him, through the important connexions which he then formed with the See also:Greek prelates and magnates assembled in Florence, to obtain from many quarters of the See also:Byzantine See also:empire the See also:precious memorials of old Greek art, which he studied with untiring zeal. The unbounded admiration called forth by Ghiberti's first bronze gate led to his receiving from the chiefs of the Florentine See also:gilds the See also:order for the second, of which the subjects were likewise taken from the Old Testament.

The Florentines gazed with especial See also:

pride on these magnificent creations, which must still have shone with all the brightness of their See also:original See also:gilding when, a See also:century later, See also:Michelangelo pronounced them worthy to be the gates of See also:paradise. Next to the gates of the baptistery Ghiberti's See also:chief works still in existence are his three statues of St See also:John the Baptist, St See also:Matthew and St See also:Stephen, executed for the See also:church of Or See also:San Michele. In the bas-See also:relief of the See also:coffin of St See also:Zenobius, in the Florence See also:cathedral, Ghiberti put forth much of his See also:peculiar See also:talent, and though he did not, as. is commonly stated, execute entirely the painted See also:glass windows in that edifice, he furnished several of the designs, and did the same service for a painted glass window in the church of Or San Michele. He. died at the See also:age of 77. We are better acquainted with Ghiberti's theories of art than with those of most of his contemporaries, for he left behind him a commentary, in which, besides his notices of art, he gives much insight into his own See also:personal See also:character and views. Every See also:page attests the religious spirit in which he lived and worked. Not only does he aim at faithfully reflecting See also:Christian truths in his creations, he regards the old Greek statues with a kindred feeling, as setting forth the highest intellectual and moral attributes ofhuman nature. He appears to have cared as little as Donatello for See also:money. Benvenuto See also:Cellini's See also:criticism on Ghiberti that in his creations of plastic art he was more successful in small than in large figures, and that he always exhibited in his works the peculiar excellences of the goldsmith's quite as much as those of the sculptor's art, is after all no valid censure, for it merely affirms that Ghiberti faithfully complied with the peculiar conditions of the task imposed upon him. More frequent have been the discussions as to the part played by See also:perspective in his representations of natural scenery. These acquired a fresh importance since the See also:discovery of the data, from which it appeared that See also:Paolo Uccello, who had commonly been regarded as the first great See also:master of perspective, worked for several years in the studio or workshop of Ghiberti, so that it became difficult to determine to ,what extent Uccello's successful innovations in perspective were due to Ghiberti's teaching. See also:Cicognara's criticism on Ghiberti, in his See also:History of See also:Sculpture, has supplied the chief materials for the illustrative See also:text of Lasinio's See also:series of engravings of the three bronze gates of the baptistery.

They consist of 42 plates in See also:

folio, and were published at Florence by Bardi in 1821. Still more vivid representations are the reproductions on a very large See also:scale by the photographic See also:establishment of Alinari. Both C. C. See also:Perkins, in his History of Tuscan Sculpture (1864), and A. F. Rio, in his Art chretien (1861-1867), have treated Ghiberti's works with much fulness, and in a spirit of See also:sound appreciation. See also the See also:chapter expressly devoted to the history of the competition for the baptistery gates in Hans See also:Semper, Donatello (1887) ; the articles by Adolf Rosemberg in Dohme's Kunst and Kiinstler See also:des Mittelalters (See also:Leipzig, 1877) ; See also:Leader See also:Scott, Ghiberti and Donatello (1882). In the Sammlung ausgewahlter Biographien See also:Vasari, ed. Carl See also:Frey, vol. iii. (1886), is given Ghiberti's commentary on art.

End of Article: GHIBERTI, LORENZO (137$–1455)

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