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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 3
Lesson 2: Sculpture and architecture in central Italy- Brunelleschi & Ghiberti, the Sacrifice of Isaac
- Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac (quiz)
- Ghiberti, "Gates of Paradise," east doors of the Florence Baptistery
- Brunelleschi, Old Sacristy
- Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence.
- Brunelleschi, Dome (quiz)
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito
- Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
- Orsanmichele and Donatello's Saint Mark
- Donatello, Saint Mark
- Donatello, St. Mark (quiz)
- A soldier saint in Renaissance Florence: Donatello's St George
- Donatello, Feast of Herod
- Donatello, Madonna of the Clouds
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David (quiz)
- Donatello, The Miracle of the Mule
- Donatello, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
- Donatello, Mary Magdalene
- Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
- Alberti, Sant'Andrea in Mantua
- Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
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Brunelleschi & Ghiberti, the Sacrifice of Isaac
Brunelleschi & Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac, competition panels for the second set of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery, 1401-2. Created by Beth Harris, Steven Zucker, and Smarthistory.
Want to join the conversation?
- What is that little white number (it looks like 2306) on the far right of Ghiberti's panel @? 1:30(17 votes)
- The original panels were removed from the door and were replaced with copies. I believe the number on the panel is a number denoting that copy. By the way, you have very good eyes. I did not catch that the first time around.(21 votes)
- Was Ghiberti's panel ultimately used in the doors, or were these just tests, kind of like job applications?(6 votes)
- Why would the cloth guild commission sculpture for the baptistery?(5 votes)
- In some (retrospectively Italian) city-states, like Florence, there was a system of commerce in place that much resembles what we call capitalism. In the tightly-knit communities of city-states, people worked for guilds which closely resemble today's corporations. So in the same way that Apple plays those commercials on TV that are about nothing more than how their "signature-products" are "designed in California", PG&E puts on those commercials about their staff being part of the community, or how Staples sponsors a sports arena we call the "Staples Center", or how local companies do those "Adopt-A-Highway" programs, the guilds promoted not only their products, but also how fantastic they were - those examples will be most familiar if you live in the US, specifically California. The guilds each took pride in making Florence the best city-state (which arguably, it was), and they wanted everyone to know about their contribution.(10 votes)
- @What is the significance of the number 8? I s.ee it in the buildings and in the quardrafoil. 7:41(3 votes)
- Number 8 means resurrection. As in 7 days God created Universe, Christ's resurrection was the "final work". As it is the baptistery, it symbolizes our resurrection, so deep believe that after death we would re-born (which is also the significance of baptism).(3 votes)
- so why did only two panels survive?(2 votes)
- they could have been melted down again to be reused and save materials(2 votes)
- Why did the competition pick the theme Sacrifice of Isaac rather than other themes?(1 vote)
- The story is rich in detail, giving opportunity for competitors to show their chops in many different ways.(4 votes)
- Ghiberti's competition panel for the doors of the baptistery shows classical references. Which of the following is one of the more obvious ones?
Group of answer choices
the inclusion of the ram to be sacrificed
the naked figure of Isaac
the elongated S curve of Isaac's body
the drapery flowing around the body of Isaac(1 vote) - Atwhat are Brunelleschi and Ghiberti doing? 4:34(0 votes)
Video transcript
(jazz piano music) - [Steven] We're in the
Bargello in Florence, looking at the so-called
competition panels, one by the sculptor Ghiberti
and one by Brunelleschi. These were made for the
single most important building in Florence, the Baptistry. - [Beth The Calimala,
the guild that included luxury cloth importers, were responsible for the decoration of the baptistry. - [Steven] We think that seven artists were involved in this
competition, but ultimately it came down to two,
Brunelleschi and Ghiberti. - [Beth] And what's fun
is that Ghiberti reported in his commentaries that
he won the competition, but Brunelleschi reported
that it was a tie and that he backed out because he didn't wanna
work with another artist. - [Steven] So each competitor was tasked with creating one quatrefoil, that is, one of these sculptural scenes, that was enclosed within
a four-lobed shape. And this was to be only one of a series that would depict major
scenes from the Bible. - [Beth] 70 years earlier, a
set of doors for the baptistry was created by Andrea Pisano. So the Florentines are
continuing this tradition of decorating the doors for the baptistry. The subject of both of
these panels is the same, it's the sacrifice of Isaac. It's the story from the Old Testament. - [Steven] Abraham and his wife had their only child late in life. It had been a miracle birth. God speaks to Abraham and tells him he must sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. And in an act of supreme
faith, Abraham takes Isaac out, and as we can see in both of these panels, is ready to slit the child's throat. - [Beth] Happily, God
has an angel intervene, and a ram is sacrificed instead. The stories of the Old
Testament were often read as prefiguring, as foreshadowing the events of the life of Christ. So the story of Abraham's
willingness to sacrifice his son was understood as
prefiguring God's willingness to sacrifice his son
Christ to save mankind. - [Steven] Let's look
first at Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi, who would go
on to a brilliant career as an architect, as an
engineer, and will after this, put sculpture away. For me, it's a more aggressive
scene than the Ghiberti. It feels more dangerous. It feels more emotionally powerful. - [Beth] We'll look at
how Abraham lifts up the throat of Isaac and has
the knife poised in his neck. This is a terrifying moment. - [Steven] And it seems almost at odds with the subsidiary scenes that are below. We see it in the lower left corner, a young man who seems to
be looking at his foot. This is a direct quote from a
very famous ancient sculpture. And it's an expression of
the young Brunelleschi's interest in classical art. - [Beth] And our eye
moves from that figure, and then we stop again and look at yet another figure
who's also looking down. - [Steven] Look at the way that the angel actually grabs Abraham's arm. He's physically stopping
the act of sacrifice and compare that to Ghiberti,
whose angel is more reserved, who does not bring down his arm to physically restrain Abraham. - [Beth] What I find interesting
is that Brunelleschi's angel swoops in from the left, parallel to the background
plane of the sculpture. Ghiberti, on the other
hand, makes that angel seem to emerge from the
bronze in the background, giving us a sense of depth
that I think he carries through in the rest of the sculpture
in a successful way. - [Steven] The figure
of Isaac is beautiful and is almost freestanding. His torso curves ever so
slightly, creating an unexpected kind of elegance even
in a scene of violence. - [Beth] And with Brunelleschi,
we don't have that sense of classical beauty, but rather a figure that is violently contorted. - [Steven] And we see
that in Abraham as well. Brunelleschi's Abraham is a diagonal that is pushing forward with
incredible determination, whereas Ghiberti's
Abraham is a lovely curve with his right hip jutting out
echoing the curve of his son. - [Beth] And look at how Ghiberti
uses that rocky landscape to unify the composition,
beginning at the upper left, where we see the ram, moving
down to the lower right. It helps to create a believable landscape for these figures to occupy, where the background feels
spare in the Brunelleschi. - [Steven] You can see what
a conundrum the judges faced. If you were looking for
something that was perhaps more dramatic, you might
look to the Brunelleschi. If you're looking for something where beauty is able to
co-exist with the narrative, you may want to look at the Ghiberti. - [Beth] And a more unified
composition, one where our eye moves more easily from figure to figure and from the landscape to the figures. Now, the other important
thing is that Ghiberti's panel is essentially cast as one piece. - [Steven] With only a
couple of small exceptions, but it wasn't in need
of extensive soldering. The other major issue
that speaks to Ghiberti's is practical, Ghiberti used less bronze. He was a more skilled metalworker. He trained with goldsmiths
and so had Brunelleschi won, it would have simply cost much more money to produce the doors, and
so the jury chose Ghiberti and we're lucky that they did, because he produced one of the most important sculptural programs
in early Renaissance Florence. (piano music resumes)