Ghiberti & Pisano Doors to the Baptistry

Built in about 1050, the Baptistry has eight sides and three doors--doors on the east, north, and south. The south doors, finished in 1330 by Andrea Pisano, have quatrefoils with eight seated Virtues and 20 scenes from the life of John the Baptist. (The baptistry is dedicated to him.)

Ghiberti, a jewelry maker, won the contest to create the north doors, designed in 1404-24, using the same quatrefoil format as Pisano.  His second set of doors--the Gates of Paradise, have much larger panels and use a square format rather than the medieval quatrefoil.

The larger doors depict scenes from the Old Testament from the Creation to the reign of Solomon.

As a jewelry maker, he was expert in lost wax technique, which he utilized to make these doors. Ghiberti is almost painting in sculpture through 1point perspective creating receding figures. This technique called relievo schiacciato, is best demonstrated in Donatello's relief "The Feast of Herod" on the baptismal font in the Siena Baptistry (1427).  This painting in sculpture technique created psychological realism in sculpture through cause & effect scenes.

Although Ghiberti uses the medieval narrative method of combining several stories within one frame, the reliefs show the influence of classical sculpture in the figure style and poses of some of the characters, the influence of classical architecture in the buildings portrayed, and the influence of Renaissance realism in the gestures and movements of his figures.