GHIBERTI, LORENZO Italian sculptor, was born at Florence in 1378. His father was Cione di Ser Buonac corso. He learned the trade of a goldsmith under his stepfather Bartoluccio ; but the goldsmith's art at that time included all varieties of plastic arts, and required from those who devoted themselves to its higher branches a general and profound knowl edge of design and colouring. In 1400 when Florence was visited by the plague, he left for the Romagna and assisted in painting frescoes in Pesaro in the castle of Carlo Malatesta. He returned to Florence on the urgent entreaties of his stepfather, who in formed him that a competition was to be opened for designs of a second bronze gate in the baptistery, and that he would do wisely to take part in this artistic contest. The subject for the artists was the sacrifice of Isaac ; and the competitors were required to observe in their work a certain conformity to the first bronze gate of the baptistery, executed by Andrea Pisano about ioo years previously. Of the six designs presented by different Italian artists, those of Donatello, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti were pro nounced the best, and Ghiberti received the commission. This great work occupied him for fully twenty years. The unbounded admiration called forth by Ghiberti's first bronze gate led to his receiving from the chiefs of the Florentine gilds the order for the second, of which the subjects were likewise taken from the Old Testament. The Florentines gazed with especial pride " on these magnificent creations, which must still have shone with all the brightness of their original gilding when, a century later, Michelangelo pronounced them worthy to be the gates of paradise. Next to the gates of the baptistery Ghiberti's chief works still in existence are his three statues of St. John the Baptist, St. Matthew and St. Stephen, executed for the church of Or San Michele, two reliefs for the baptistery in Siena and the bas-relief of the coffin of St. Zenobius, in the Florence cathedral. As an architect he was employed on the Florence cathedral. As a painter he furnished designs for the painted glass windows of the same building. He died at Florence on Dec. 1, Ghiberti's writings known by the name of "Commentarii" are invaluable for the study of art history. The first section gives an account of ancient art founded on Pliny ; the second is devoted to mediaeval art and contains biographies of artists, mainly Tuscans of the 14th century; the third deals with optics and proportions.
See Vasari-Milanesi II. ; C. Frey, Sammlung ausgewdhlter Bio graphien Vasaris III. (1886) ; Ch. Perkins, History of Tuscan Sculpture (1864) ; Lord Balcarres, The Evolution of Italian Sculpture (1909) ; Ghiberti's writings were published in 1912 by Julius von Schlosser.