Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti. Princeton (NJ): Princeton Univ Pr.

When the two panels were opened, they revealed the artist who createad them, Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Through his misuse of the term "type revivals," Shaw includes three of his own typefaces (designed with Garrett Boge): Donatello, Beata, and Ghiberti, all of which are copies of renaissance lettering and have no basis in type.

Like his probable master Ghiberti, Filarete was an early exponent of bronze reliefs all'antica.

Here, near the entry, are Lorenzo Ghiberti's renowned bronze "Gates of Paradise"--the actual 1425-52, nearly 5,000-pound doors that had adorned the Baptistery, opposite the Duomo, until they were replaced (for safekeeping) by copies.

I feel tempted to draw their attention to 15th century Florence with a population of less than 50,000, from which emerged Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raffael, Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Alberti and other great artists.

He studied under and was intimate with the humanists Niccoli, Bruni, Poggio, and Traversari, and the classizing artists Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, and Donatello.

As contemporary as the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington, D.C., or as ancient as the Sphinx, as detailed as Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise in Florence, Italy, or as simple as an inscribed stone, outdoor sculptures in cities, towns, and countrysides around the world form galleries of artistic ingenuity.

The artists whose works are discussed, explained and so beautifully illustrated contain some of the greatest names in the civilised world: in addition to Donatello we have the works of Bernardo and Antonio Rossellino, Amadeo, Verrocchio, Ghiberti and Luca della Robbia.

The study is presented as a kind of test case, Greenstein suggesting early in the book that similar considerations were probably behind the works of other artists of the time, those named, Donatello, Masaccio, Ghiberti, Castagno, Piero, Botticoelli, Ghirlandaio, and even Gentile and Filippo Lippi.