| There is no doubt that those in every city who by their merits
obtain fame become a blessed light to those who are born after
them. For there is nothing that arouses the minds of men, and
makes them indifferent to the hardships of study, so much as the
thought of the honour and advantage that the labour may bring
them. This Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti, otherwise Di Bartoluccio,
knew well. He in his first years was put to the art of the goldsmith,
but delighting more in the arts of sculpture and design, he studied
colours and also cast little figures in bronze. About this time
the Signory of Florence, with the Guild of the Merchants, seeing
that there were at that time many excellent sculptors, both Florentines
and strangers, determined that they would make the second pair
of gates for S. Giovanni, the oldest and the chief church of that
city. So they called upon all the best masters in Italy to come
to Florence and make trial of their skill, requiring them to produce
a subject picture worked in bronze, like one of those which Andrea
Pisano had made in the first gate. Bartoluccio Ghiberti thereupon
wrote to Lorenzo his son, who was then working in Pesaro, urging
him to return to Florence, for this was an opportunity of making
himself known and showing his skill. These words so moved Lorenzo
that although Pandolfo Malatesti and all his court were heaping
him with caresses, and would scarcely let him go, he took his
leave of them, and neither promise nor reward would detain him,
for it seemed to him to be a thousand years before he could get
to Florence. So setting forth he came safely to his own city.
Many strangers had already arrived and made known their coming
to the consuls of the guild. They made choice of seven, three
being Florentines and the rest Tuscans, ordaining for them a certain
provision of money, and requiring that within a year each one
should finish one subject in bronze of the same size as those
of the first gate. And the subject was Abraham sacrificing Isaac
his son, for they thought that it contained all the difficulties
of the art, landscape, figures nude and draped, and animals. Those
who took part in the contest were Filippo di Ser Brunellesco,
Donatello, and Lorenzo, all Florentines; and Jacopo della Quercia
of Sienna and Niccolo d'Arezzo his pupil, Francesco di Vandabrina,
and Simone da Colle, famous for his bronzes, and they all made
promise to finish the work in the time appointed. So each one
set to work, and with all diligence and study put forth all his
strength and knowledge to surpass the others in excellence, working
secretly and keeping concealed what they did that they might not
do the same things. Lorenzo alone, who worked by Bartoluccio's
counsel, and who was required by him to make essays and many models
before he resolved upon using them for the work, continually brought
in the citizens to see, and sometimes strangers who were passing
through, if they understood the matter, that he might hear their
opinions; and so it came about that the model was very well done
and without any defect. And having made the mould and cast it
in bronze, it came out very well indeed, and he, with Bartoluccio
his father, polished it with such patience and earnestness that
it could not have been better finished.
So the time being come when they were to be exhibited in competition,
they were all finished and brought before the Guild of the Merchants
for judgment. And when the consuls and many other citizens had
seen them, opinions were very diverse about them. And there came
many strangers to Florence, painters and sculptors and some goldsmiths,
called by the consuls to aid them to give judgment, with others
of that trade who dwelt at Florence. The number of them was thirty four,
each one most skilful in his art. And although their opinions
were different, one being pleased with the manner of this one,
and another with that, nevertheless they agreed that Filippo Brunellesco
and Lorenzo had composed and finished the subject better than
Donatello, although there was good drawing in his. Jacopo della
Quercia had good figures, but there was no finish, although it
was done with diligence. Francesco di Vandabrina's work had good
heads and was well polished, but was confused in the composition.
That by Simone da Colle was a good cast, that being his special
art, but the design was not good. Niccolo d'Arezzo's figures were
stunted and the work was not well polished. Only the piece which
Lorenzo had brought as his specimen, which may still be seen in
the merchants' hall, was perfect in all its parts; the work was
well designed and well composed, the figures were graceful and
their attitudes very beautiful, and it was finished with so much
care that it had no appearance of having been cast and worked
upon with iron tools, but seemed rather to have been breathed
into existence.
Then Donatello and Filippo, seeing the care that Lorenzo had taken
with his work, withdrew into a corner, and talking together resolved
that the work ought to be entrusted to Lorenzo, for it seemed
to them that it would be both for public and private good that
Lorenzo being young, for he was no more than twenty, should be
enabled to bring forth those greater fruits of which this was
a promise; and in their judgment he had executed it more excellently
than the others, so that it would be rather the part of envy to
take the work from him than a virtue to give it up to him.
Therefore the work being entrusted to Lorenzo, he made a wooden
frame of the proper size, and worked all the ornaments and decorations
of the gate, and those that were to surround each compartment,
and having dried the model in a house which he had bought over
against S. Maria Nuova, where now stands the weavers' hospital,
he made a great furnace, which I can remember to have seen, and
cast the frame in metal. But as fortune would have it, it did
not come out well; however, without losing courage, or being dismayed,
he made another mould so quickly that none knew of it, and cast
it again, and this time it came out excellently well. And so continuing
his work he cast each subject by itself, and fitted it into its
place. And the work was brought to perfection without sparing
time or fatigue, and the composition of each portion was so well
arranged that it deserves that praise which Filippo had given
to the first part, and yet greater. And so he was honoured
by his fellow citizens and greatly praised by the artists both
of his own land and strangers. The work with the ornaments round,
of animals and festoons of fruit, cost twenty two thousand florins,
and the gates weighed thirty four thousand pounds.
After this the fame of Lorenzo went on increasing every day, and
he worked for an infinite number of persons, making for Pope Martin
a clasp for his cope, with figures in high relief, and a mitre
with leaves of gold, and among them many little figures which
were held to be most beautiful. Also when Pope Eugenius came to
Florence, to the council held in 1439, and saw the works of Lorenzo,
he caused him to make for him a mitre of gold, in weight fifteen
pounds, and the pearls of it weighed five and a half pounds.
And when Florence saw that the works of their great artist were
so much praised, it was determined by the merchants to entrust
to him the third pair of gates of S. Giovanni. And although the
one he had made before had been by their orders made with ornaments
like those on the gates of Andrea Pisano, yet seeing that Lorenzo
had surpassed his, they gave him leave to make it in any manner
he liked, so that it should be the most highly adorned, the richest,
most perfect, and most beautiful that could be imagined. Neither
was he to regard time or expense, but as he had surpassed all
other sculptors, so was he to surpass all his other works.
Lorenzo therefore began his work, and put into it all that he
knew. And in truth it may be said that the work is perfect in
everything, and is the most beautiful work in the world that has
ever been seen in ancient or modern times. And that Lorenzo merits
praise we know, for one day Michael Angelo Buonarroti stopped
to look at the work, and some one asked him what he thought of
it, and if these gates were beautiful, and he answered, "They
are so beautiful that they might well be the gates of Paradise."
Praise truly just, and given by one who could judge!
Lorenzo was aided in polishing and finishing the work after it
was cast by many young men who afterwards became excellent masters,
as Filippo Brunellesco, Paolo Uccello, Antonio del Pollaiuolo,
and others. And besides the payment which the consuls of the guild
gave him, the Signory bestowed upon him a good estate near the
abbey of Settimo. Nor was it long before he was received among
the Signory, and honoured with the supreme magistracy of the city.
For which grateful conduct the Florentines deserve to be praised,
as they have deserved to be blamed for the little gratitude they
have shown towards others.
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