34 Facts About Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti, born Lorenzo di Bartolo, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor from Florence, a key figure in the Early Renaissance, best known as the creator of two sets of bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery, the later one called by Michelangelo the Gates of Paradise.

Regardless, Bartolo was the only father Lorenzo Ghiberti knew and they had a close and loving relationship.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was interested in many forms of art and did not confine himself to gold-working.

Lorenzo Ghiberti delighted in modeling copies of antique medals and in painting.

Lorenzo Ghiberti received formal training as a painter from Gherardo Starnina, an Italian artist from Florence.

Lorenzo Ghiberti then went to work in the workshop of his stepfather, where Antonio del Pollaiuolo worked.

Lorenzo Ghiberti first became famous when as a 21-year-old he won the 1401 competition for the first set of bronze doors, with Brunelleschi as the runner up.

When his first set of twenty-eight panels was complete, Lorenzo Ghiberti was commissioned to produce a second set for another doorway in the church, this time with scenes from the Old Testament, as originally intended for his first set.

Lorenzo Ghiberti told Noah he was going to destroy the earth with a flood and that he needed to build an Ark.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was told to bring two of each kind of animal and his family.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was going to be sacrificed before an angel stopped Abraham.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was born an Israelite and his people were enslaved by people of Egypt.

Lorenzo Ghiberti died in 1455, eight years before the frame was finished leaving a majority of the work to Vittorio and other members of his workshop.

The original location for these doors was the east side of the baptistry, but the doors were moved to the north side of the baptistry after Lorenzo Ghiberti completed his second commission, known as the "Gates of Paradise".

Differences between the Sacrifice of Isaac created by Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti include the way that the panel was constructed and the overall efficiency of the panel.

In contrast to Brunelleschi's method of creating the artwork on his panel, Lorenzo Ghiberti's casting of the art had all of the figures, with the exception of Isaac, created as one piece.

Four years later in 1407, Lorenzo Ghiberti legally took over the commission and was prohibited from accepting additional commissions.

Lorenzo Ghiberti devoted much of his time to creating the gates, and was paid two-hundred florins a year for his work.

At the Aja, Lorenzo Ghiberti built a large furnace to melt his metal in an attempt to cast the doors, however his first model was a failure.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was given many commissions, including some from the pope.

Lorenzo Ghiberti employed the recently discovered principles of perspective to give depth to his compositions.

Lorenzo Ghiberti uses different sculptural techniques, from incised lines to almost free-standing figure sculpture within the panels, further accentuating the sense of space.

Lorenzo Ghiberti himself said they were "the most singular work that I have ever made".

Lorenzo Ghiberti's masterpiece was commissioned by the Arte di Calimala guild, which was the wool merchants guild.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was wealthier than most of his contemporary artists, with his success bringing him great financial rewards.

Lorenzo Ghiberti had a substantial amount of money invested in government bonds to his credit.

Lorenzo Ghiberti lived to be seventy-five years old, and succumbed to a fever and died in Florence.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was commissioned to execute monumental gilded bronze statues for select niches of the Orsanmichele in Florence, one of Saint John the Baptist for the Arte di Calimala and one of St Matthew for the Arte di Cambio.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was a collector of classical artifacts and a historian.

Lorenzo Ghiberti was actively involved in the spreading of humanist ideas.

Lorenzo Ghiberti's "Commentario" includes the earliest known surviving autobiography of an artist.

Lorenzo Ghiberti discusses the development of art from the time of Cimabue through to his own work.

Recent scholarship indicates that in his work on perspective, Lorenzo Ghiberti was influenced by the Arab polymath Alhazen who had written about the optical basis of perspective in the early eleventh century.

The Sacrifice of Isaac, Lorenzo Ghiberti's winning piece for the 1401 competition.