Book contents
- The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction Making and Unmaking Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Part I Surface Effects: Color, Luster, and Animation
- Part II Sculptural Bodies: Created, Destroyed, and Re-Enchanted
- Part III Sculptural Norms, Made and Unmade
- Part IV Sculpture as Performance
- Part V Sculpture in the Expanded Field
- Chapter 13 Stucco as Substrate and Surface in Quattrocento Florence (and Beyond)
- Chapter 14 The Punch Marks on Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise
- Chapter 15 Relief Effects in Donatello and Mantegna
- Chapter 16 Candelabra-Columns and the Lombard Architecture of Sculptural Assemblage
- Part VI Sculpture and History
- Index
- References
Chapter 14 - The Punch Marks on Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise
An Intersection of Economy and Ritual
from Part V - Sculpture in the Expanded Field
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2020
- The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction Making and Unmaking Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy
- Part I Surface Effects: Color, Luster, and Animation
- Part II Sculptural Bodies: Created, Destroyed, and Re-Enchanted
- Part III Sculptural Norms, Made and Unmade
- Part IV Sculpture as Performance
- Part V Sculpture in the Expanded Field
- Chapter 13 Stucco as Substrate and Surface in Quattrocento Florence (and Beyond)
- Chapter 14 The Punch Marks on Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise
- Chapter 15 Relief Effects in Donatello and Mantegna
- Chapter 16 Candelabra-Columns and the Lombard Architecture of Sculptural Assemblage
- Part VI Sculpture and History
- Index
- References
Summary
Several years ago, conservators at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence embarked on the restoration of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise (1425–52) (Fig. 194).1 After removing stains of age – abject layers of dirt – from the doors, the conservators found, to their surprise, that several exquisite impressions of various stamps had been punched into the bronze surface of the back of the right door (Figs. 195–197). Among the small marks are iterations of Florence’s primary patron saint, John the Baptist, as well as dolphins, rosettes, and imagery related to the Florentine fleur-de-lis, an emblem of the city. The marks, which are distributed around the armature of the door, were struck into the back of the door after it was cast, probably while it lay in a horizontal position in Ghiberti’s foundry across the street from the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.2
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- The Art of Sculpture in Fifteenth-Century Italy , pp. 314 - 326Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020