Three 15th Century Lorenzo Ghiberti Panels To Teach American Viewers About Early Renaissance Humanist Artistic Values

"Genesis"

One of three touring Old Testament Scenes (of ten) from Lorenzo Ghiberti's Bapistery doors in Florence, Italy, the European Union.

European Renaissance artists had an obsession with the human figure, beauty, complex order, and meaning.

[Click image for enlargement.]

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"The early-Renaissance sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti spent 27 years creating the monumental gilded bronze doors for the eastern portal of the Baptistery in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence. And it has taken teams of conservators just about as long to restore them.

Their 10 panels depict scenes from the Old Testament, intricately illustrated in high and low relief. When the three-ton, 20-foot-tall doors were completed, in 1452, Michelangelo pronounced them 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." ...

Carol Vogel "One [Three] of Florence’s Renaissance Prizes to Go on U.S. Tour" New York Times October 16, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/16/arts/design/
16loan.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Image credit: Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence via New York Times. With thanks.