Discuss Ghiberti's Contribution to the Development of Florentine Renaissance Sculpture

779 Words4 Pages
Ghiberti was originally trained as a goldsmith and his work always contained elements of the International Gothic style. He was also a designer of stained glass, an architect, a bronze caster, a writer and a collector of Classical sculpture. Ghiberti’s work marks the changeover from the International Gothic to the Renaissance style. Ghiberti’s contribution to the development of Florentine Renaissance sculpture is shown in his relief sculpture. There are many innovations Ghiberti applied when making the sculptures for the doors. The approach as a whole to the design of the doors has much greater Renaissance harmony and balance. The design of individual panels has more symmetry, balance, regularity and concord. Overall, his designs are thorough and geometrical and start to slowly move away from the International Gothic style towards the new Renaissance style. Ghiberti’s interest in the natural world has Renaissance basis and is more scientific. Flora and Fauna are not stylised but carefully observed with a sense of naturalism. Ghiberti develops pictorial space far beyond the International Gothic style. In the panels, the figures closest to the viewer are rendered in high relief, the figures in the middle distance are treated in mezzo relief and the figures away from the picture plane are in low relief. An example of shallow space is shown in the Birth of the Baptist where the angels in the background are shown very faintly and the figures in the foreground are in high relief. Foreshortening is used in the Angel in The Annunciation. The angel is moving towards the Virgin Mary creating an illusion. The Creation of Adam and Eve is a good example showing Aerial Perspective. In The Creation of Adam and Eve as we move further into the background the figures become less detailed where as the figures in the foreground are in high relief, almost free standing, because

More about Discuss Ghiberti's Contribution to the Development of Florentine Renaissance Sculpture

Open Document