Sacrifice of Isaac

Personal Reflection

The famous winner of the Florence Baptistry door competition, Ghiberti's quatrefoil is considered the first renaissance style nude since classical times. When I first encountered this piece in class, I wasn't terribly impressed since it was pitted against Brunelleschi's submission, but after learning the context, I absolutely love this piece. Ghiberti was the youngest in the competition at about 23 and ended up winning the privilege to decorate the Baptistry doors. A biographer said that the judges actually allowed them both to win to work on the doors together, but Brunelleschi wanted full control and they didn't come to an agreement, so Brunelleschi screwed off and became the best Italian renaissance architect ever. Ghiberti was the better choice anyway because he used less materials than Brunelleschi to make the quatrefoil casts. The competition required the two to create the same scene, the assassination of Isaac, a famous story from Genesis. If you don't know the story, I'll sum it up real quick: Abraham's loyalty was tested by god, who told him to slit his son's throat and burn him on an altar in the woods. But god stopped him right before he killed Isaac and instead told him to sacrifice a ram instead. So as you can see in the scene, the story is illustrated quite nicely in a more realistic landscape than the circular composition Brunelleschi opted for. Ghiberti also employs foreshortening on his angel, further supporting the elegant and harmonious 'mind mastering the body' theme that is so important to classical objects.

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