Lorenzo Ghiberti and the Gate of Paradise
Lorenzo Ghiberti was born in 1378 in Florence from an extra-marital relationship which in his youth led him to have several misunderstandings with the society of the time. His apprenticeship began at the goldsmith's shop of his father Bartolo di Michele called "Bartoluccio". Here he learned the first rudiments that make him famous as a great goldsmith and sculptor. The late Gothic art and culture expressed by his works made him one of the greatest exponents of the Renaissance language of the 1400s.
Lorenzo, the excellent master, participates in the competition for the second door of the Baptistery of Florence in 1401, the data in which reference is made to the beginning of the Renaissance. In 1424 he completed the arduous work with the full satisfaction of the clients. The esteem gained with this imposing work was so great that the Consuls of the Art of Calimala are assigned to the construction of the third door of the Baptistery without a public competition. The contract was signed on January 2, 1425. The Maestro took 27 years to finish the work. It took several years to deepen the philosophical themes of the masterpiece dedicated to the "old testament". He collaborates with many artists of the time to deepen the techniques, experiences and manual skills that distinguish each Renaissance work from the others.
In the history of the Casato Orafo Torrini, it was found in a letter written by Ghiberti to Giovanni Turini in April 1427 (Museo dell' Opera del Duomo di Siena). In addition to exchanging certificates of mutual esteem, in the paper, they describe a picture of vitality and suffering that they consider perpetrated in Florence. In those same years, in fact, I had to collaborate on the forms of the Baptismal Font of the Cathedral of Siena together with a Jacopo Della Quercia and a Donatello on the elements of one of the most significant works of the early Renaissance.
In 1420 exactly 600 years ago, Brunelleschi began the creative apotheosis of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore which was then finished in 1461. The door then called "Paradise" turned out to be so beautiful and appreciated that it was placed at the main entrance of the Baptistery.
