North doors panels: 17. Ascent to Calvary
by GHIBERTI, Lorenzo, Gilded bronze
The theme for Ghiberti’s north doors of the Baptistery is the life of Christ in 20 scenes with the 8 lower panels containing the Evangelists and Fathers of the Church. As these doors were kept shut, except on feast days, the scenes read from the bottom accross both wings.
View the arrangement of the panels on the north doors of the Baptistery.
The picture shows the Ascent to Calvary, one of the 20 scenes from the life of Christ. In this relief the frame has ceased to serve as a proscenium arch, and has receded to a middle plane, so that the action takes place in front of it. To this expedient of projecting the main focus of the narrative outwards towards the spectator much of the impact of this beautiful relief is due.