Lorenzo Ghiberti: Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac, Bronze Relief, 1401

In 1452, Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti unveiled a masterpiece that had been a quarter-century in the making: ten bronze panels depicting intricate scenes from the Old Testament. The monumental gilded bronze doors (each more than 15 feet tall) were designed for the Baptistery in the Piazza del Duomo in Florence. ...more

In April 2007, three fully restored panels from Ghiberti's legendary doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni will arrive in the United States for the first and only time. The panels, invaluable gilded bronze reliefs from the three-ton, 20-foot-tall doors, will be on view to a huge audience over the ...more

The story begins in the waning days of the fourteenth century, the Trecento, a time when the two masters were young, full of dreams and promise, and Florence herself -- already old and storied -- stood at a crossroads, not only in Italy but in the history of the western ...more