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Chap. X. GHIBERTI. 273 a tinge of that religious feeling which lingered yet awhile in the breast of some choice artists. Before finally dropping the sculptor’s tools, he was one of those who competed for the gates of S. Giovanni; and no competent judge, who compares the bronze relief, assigned to him at the Uffizi, with that attributed to Ghiberti, will fail- to con clude that it was hard to decide which of the two possessed most talent. It must be candidly confessed, indeed, that, after carefully examining both works, the critic may be convinced that the relief of Brunelleschi is conceived and executed more in accordance with the true maxims of art, whilst that of Ghiberti is more cal culated to please. 1 Ghiberti, who enthusiastically urges the elaim of the Tuscan school of painting to the perfection of the Greeks, 2 but who need not be taken as literally meaning all that he says in this respect, had clearly intended, at the out set of his career, to become a painter. Unwilling, per haps, to compete with his father, who was a sculptor, he chose to forget the rules of plastic art. The competition for the gates of S. Giovanni altered his resolve; and he went in for the prize with others, amongst whom was not Donatello, as we are now aware. 3 The manner in which he carried out the work of the first gate, in com pany with Bartoluccio, his father, illustrates a remarkable tendency in the age, the introduction of a style exclusively pictorial in the execution of bas-relief, a new feature that was soon to find its concomitant in painting. 4 The pro totype of Ghiberti in his first great enterprise is Gio- describes the model which he sub mitted. No record justifies this statement, and we know that in 1401, the competing year, Dona tello was but 17 years old. See Donatello’s income tax papers in Gaye. Vol. I. p.p. 120—3. 4 This phase of art in Ghiberti is ably developed in Rum oh r, Forschungen. Vol. II. p.p. 230 and following. VOL. II. 1 Brunelleschi’s relief is num bered 391, that of Ghiberti 392. Both represent Abraham’s sacri fice. Albertini in “Memoriale” ub. sup. p. 11, notes Brunelleschi’s relief as being the ornament of a marble altar in S. Lorenzo of Florence. 2 Ghiberti com. ub. sup. p.XXII. 3 Vasari (Vol. III. p. 103) notes the presence of Donatello amongst the competitors, and (p. 104) even 18
