Lorenzo+Ghiberti


 * Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455)**



Lorenzo Ghiberti was born in Florence, Italy in 1378 and lived until 1455. He was a sculptor, painter, and a goldsmith. Ghiberti's father was also a goldsmith who helped him achieve his best.

Ghiberti is best known for a set of bronze doors that he created for the baptistery of Florence. He started the doors in 1403 and completed them in 1424. They have twenty-eight panels, twenty of which show the scenes of the life of Christ. One of the panels in the centre of the left-hand door is Ghiberti himself. The other 7 panels contain the Evangelists and the Fathers of the Church. The panels are designed with reliefs. Relief is the term used for a raised design. This first set of doors won a contest so Lorenzo went on to make another set.



The second set of bronze doors are referred to as the //Gates of Paradise.// This set of doors only has ten panels. All of the panels portray the Old Testament. The first pair of doors only took twenty-one years but this set took him twenty-seven years. These doors may of taken a long time to create but the end result was so outstanding that even Michelangelo said that they were "worthy of Paradise".

Ghiberti trained many other artists who then became his assistants. Although Lorenzo was most famous for his bronze doors he also made frames for his classical and native pictures, glass windows for the Cathedral, and put porches on a baptistery in Florence. He did some sculpting and sculpted statues of saints, such as St. John, St. Stephen, and St. Matthew.

For more information on Ghiberti and the Bronze Doors you can go to: http://www.mega.it/eng/egui/monu/bo.htm