Sacrifice of Isaac
by GHIBERTI, Lorenzo, Bronze, partly gilded, 465 x 400 mm (including frame)
This panel, together with that made by Filippo Brunelleschi, both depicting the sacrifice of Isaac, have great artistic and historical importance. They are the famous trial pieces presented in a competition for the right to construct the door of the Baptistery. The lyrical elegance of Ghiberti’s version undoubtedly expresses more coherently the famous Biblical episode. Ghiberti won the competition.
Ghiberti’s competition relief of the Sacrifice of Isaac determined the development of low relief not only in the 15th century but through the stylistic periods of Mannerism and Baroque, and up until the work of Rodin in the 19th century.