Richard Krautheimer (1897–1994)

I'd heard a lot about Ghilbeti's bronze doors before I ever saw them but confess to being underwhelmed by these huge doors and the tiny detailed reliefs that made up the panels, the first time that I saw them. (I never was sure if they actually functioned as doors. Actually, after a lot of Googling ..because nobody seems to mention them being opened, I saw a picture of one of the doors half opened. So that answers my question. Yes, these 3 tonne doors which are 17 feet high actually do function as doors). I saw the panels a bit more at leisure in 2005 when we stayed in a small hotel nearby...and appreciated them more. I've actually tried my hand at relief sculpture and it's much more difficult than sculpture in the round. It's a combination of drawing and modelling with very little depth to the modelling. Suffice to say, that these days I'm mightily impressed with Ghilberti's work. Mind you he did have at least one extremely talented assistant in Donatello.
It is probably fair to say that Ghilberti's training as a goldsmith shows through in the fine work which makes up most of these sculptures.
The book is really little more than a collection of black and white photos (a few in colour) of each of the panels and the individual portraits on the North and East doors...the doors produced by Ghilberti and his workshop. But despite the age of the book (published in 1971) the quality of the photos is superb. Most of the portraits of the prophets for example are really quite tiny yet marvellously detailed (the hand of the goldsmith evident). A couple of pages of text accompany the photographs but it is mainly historical material about how Ghilberti got the contract at the age of 22 and finished it when he was into his 50's...Not a bad accomplishment and something that he evidently looked back on with pride. Though it was interesting to me to find that even within this time-frame fashions of sculpture had moved on and Ghilberti's work was being looked upon as rather old fashioned and dated. Yet here we are, 600 years later admiring the work and appreciating it's excellence.
A nice little book. I give it four stars.… (mais)