Baptistery of San Giovanni
The Baptistery of San Giovanni is the baptistery of the Duomo of Florence , which, with its style that goes back to antiquity, is one of the central works of the Florentine Proto- Renaissance . The time it was built is disputed, but the church was consecrated in the 11th century . The model is likely to have been the baptistery of San Giovanni in Laterano .
The baptistery faces the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore . The octagonal structure was long thought to be an old Martian temple. The three artistically significant bronze portals of the church by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Andrea Pisano were built between 1330 and 1452. It bears the papal honorary title Basilica minor .
location
The Baptistery is located in the Duomo Square in the center of Florence. Opposite the main portal of the Baptistery is the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore with Giotto's bell tower . Originally the episcopal church of Santa Reparata stood here , only later after the completion of the mosaic ceiling in the baptistery it was decided to build the cathedral at this point. The Cathedral Museum ( Museo dell 'Opera del Duomo ), which exhibits many items from the history of the Baptistery, is on the other side of the square. Opposite the apse of the baptistery is the old archbishop's palace, opposite the south side the Loggia del Bigallo . Between the baptistery and the episcopal church there were two porphyry columns that the Pisans had given to the city in 1117 out of gratitude for the help in the Balearic War. On the north side there was a column in honor of St. Zenobius at the point where, according to legend, a dry elm began to sprout when his body was brought to the "holy Reparata".
history
Origin, start of construction, controversy
Although much research has been carried out on this, the question of the origins of the building remains largely unanswered. Until the 18th and 19th centuries, it was believed that the baptistery was an old Roman Martian temple from the Augustan era. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, excavations under the floor and around the baptistery found remains of old Roman buildings and mosaic floors from the period between the 1st and 3rd centuries. This proves that the church was built on the foundations of a Roman building. To this day, however, it is unclear whether the baptistery stands on the site of an earlier church building from the first centuries of Christianity in Florence. The first reliable source dates from 897 when an ecclesia (church) is mentioned, which was dedicated to John the Baptist and stood opposite the bishop's palace. The current building dates from the 11th century at the earliest. It is unclear whether at the time of the consecration by Pope Nicholas II (formerly Bishop of Florence) on November 6, 1059, today's building was already completed or not completed until later. The classic shape of the building could be explained by the medieval reorientation of architecture towards Roman antiquity.
Construction phases
In 1128 the baptismal font from the Basilica of Santa Reparata , the remains of which can still be seen today under the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, was moved to the baptistery. In the middle of the 12th century, the lantern was commissioned, which, according to Villani's tradition, closed the dome, which had been open at the top until then. The lantern was financed by the woolen cloth merchants, who in return affixed their emblem, an eagle with a wool roll in its claws, in several places on the outside of the baptistery. The wool cloth merchants were entrusted with the administration of the baptistery until 1770, when Leopold II (HRR) abolished the Florentine guilds . Seven years later, management was transferred to the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral Building Office. In 1202 the semicircular apse was replaced by a rectangular apse as you can see it today. The splendid marble furnishings of the apse also included an altar, some of which was lost after being dismantled in the Baroque period. In 1225, the dome began to be covered with mosaics. The work of the many painters and mosaic artists was so convincing that the mosaic cladding was extended to the gallery, a walk-in corridor in the inner wall. In 1288 the architect Arnolfo di Cambio was commissioned to lay a new floor in the square around the baptistery. In the process, the surrounding street level was raised, which changed the proportions of the baptistery, and now the building looks slightly “sunken”. Leonardo da Vinci wanted to counter this by raising the entire building, but the plan was dropped again. According to the biographer and court painter of the Medici Giorgio Vasari , Arnolfo di Cambio also clad the corner pilasters made of sandstone with the stripe pattern made of marble that can still be seen today. Whether this was a first-time strip incrustation or whether an old one was simply replaced by a new one was already a matter of dispute in Vasari's time. In 1370 a marble baptismal font was built , adorned with depictions of the sacrament of baptism, and placed on the south-eastern side of the wall, where it still stands today.
First sculptures and the portals
From 1309 to 1320, Tino di Camaino created groups of sculptures above the portals with the support of the wool merchants. In the year 1322 was Andrea Pisano commissioned to produce a gilded bronze door, which he completed 1336th Originally created as the main portal for the east side, this gate was replaced by the Ghiberti portal in 1424 and can now be seen on the south side. When a terrible plague struck the city in 1348, work on the baptistery was given up for the time being.
After years of economic crisis, famine and bad harvests, Florence began to prosper again and plans were made to beautify the Baptistery. In 1401 the wool merchants announced a competition, the winner of which was to design the other two portals. This appears to be the first such competition in the history of modern art.
Lorenzo Ghiberti eventually prevailed against six other competitors, including Francesco di Valdambrino , Jacopo della Quercia and Filippo Brunelleschi . The competition entries should be executed in a four-pass framework such as Pisano's portal and have the sacrifice of Isaac as their theme. Most of the contributions have been lost, only the bronze casts by Brunelleschi and Ghiberti have survived; they can be seen today in the Museo nazionale del Bargello .
In these two panels, fundamentally different conceptions of art become clear. Brunelleschi emphasized the drama of the plot in his version, Ghiberti seemed more restrained in comparison, the act is more hinted at, but he pays more attention to the decorative side, to the representation of the landscape, the folds of the robes and the beauty of the body all of Isaac on the sacrificial table. With Brunelleschi, the murderous plot is in full swing and dominates all other topics, while with Ghiberti there is a kind of even mass distribution of the individual topics, which clearly have their own weight compared to the main topic. From the competition of 1401 Ghiberti emerged as the winner with his even more Gothic work based entirely on lighting effects and a soft, decorative rhythm. But the future belonged to Brunelleschi.
Incidentally, it may also have played a role that the Ghibertis model weighed only 18.5 kg compared to Brunelleschi's 25.5 kg, which meant a considerably lower consumption of bronze for the construction of the entire door.
According to legend, Brunelleschi is said to have given up sculpture after this defeat and concentrated entirely on architecture. Originally he was a goldsmith and sculptor. Brunelleschi never got over this defeat by Ghiberti, and this will later - from 1418 - still play a role in the cathedral dome, for which both will be responsible. Ghiberti was also far more sophisticated than the withdrawn Brunelleschi when it came to social manners. He took extensive advice from other artists and sculptors, many of whom happened to be on the jury.
After his victory, Ghiberti's workshop was commissioned to create a bronze portal, which should be based on the structure of Pisano's portal. At times over twenty helpers were involved in the work on the portal, but they dragged on for decades. For Easter in 1424, the portal was finally attached to the east side.
A year later, Ghiberti was commissioned to create another portal. A letter proves that Leonardo Bruni , the Chancellor of the Republic, originally campaigned for a portal to the Old Testament, modeled on the other two with 24 tablets. Ghiberti, who by now enjoyed a high reputation, was able to enforce his own artistic ideas and decided on 10 large-format panels. In 1452 he finally finished the second gate. According to Giorgio Vasari, Michelangelo is said to have said when looking at the panels: “They are so beautiful that they look good at the gates of paradise.” However, the term “gate of paradise” was also used for other portals before it, so that is not proven that this name for the gate actually goes back to Michelangelo's saying.
This 'paradise' door did not come to the place for which it was intended, on the north portal. Instead, the city decided to take an unprecedented step. Ghiberti's old door with the legend of Christ was removed from the sacred east portal facing the cathedral, moved to the north and Ghiberti's new work came to the most important place.
The enormity of this process consisted in the fact that by replacing Ghiberti's older door with the story of Christ, the only place appropriate to it, the most elegant side of the baptistery, the east side, had to be left in order to make room for a door whose Old Testament theme breaks the traditional order threatened. Ghiberti's extensive artistic fortune had been able to overturn all traditional ideas of the client. “For for the first time, aesthetics as a criterion for the location of a work of art took precedence over its content.” So this door is not only particularly beautiful, it is also of outstanding importance for the meaning of art in general.
At the same time, Donatello and Michelozzo created a monumental tomb for John XXIII. who, thanks to the intercession of the Medici, was given the honor of a funerary monument in the baptistery. Donatello also created the impressive wooden statue of the penitent Magdalena for the Baptistery , which has been on display in the nearby Cathedral Museum since the Arno was flooded in 1966.
New sculptures, destruction and restorations
Sculpture group Baptism of Christ by Andrea Sansovino and Vincenzo Danti. Around 1505 Sansovino left Florence for other commissions, so that he only dedicated St. John completed. Danti worked out the Christ based on Sansovino's sketches, until his death in 1576 the angel was only available as a stucco and terracotta model. It was only in 1792 completed Innocenzo Spinazzi the angel in marble.
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The mosaics were threatened by rainwater that penetrated the interior of the dome despite the restoration of the marble roof at the end of the 14th century. Was commissioned Alessio Belsovinetti , one of the last of the dying art of mosaic laying dominated with the inspection and maintenance of the valuable mosaics. Other artistic works of the Middle Ages, on the other hand, were considered out of date and not worthy of preservation. The groups of sculptures above the portals from the 14th century were replaced by new groups, each consisting of three figures. The main entrance was chosen for the marble baptism of Christ by Andrea Sansovino and Vincenzo Danti . For the north side, according to Vasari, with the help of Leonardo da Vinci , Francesco Rustici designed a sermon by John the Baptist , which was set up in 1511. The choice of themes was based on the old figures of Tino di Caimanos, only the south side got a new theme: The beheading of John the Baptist, which was carried out by Vincenzo Danti. In 1577 the old baptismal font, probably from the 13th century, was demolished by the grand ducal architect Bernardo Buontalenti , who, however, left a drawing of it. The occasion was the baptism of Filippos, the first-born son of Francesco de 'Medici and Johanna of Austria. One was bothered by the destruction of the ancient spaciousness of the baptistery by the baptismal font, which at that time was still believed to be an old Martian temple. The stone slabs of the old baptismal font were disposed of near the city wall and some of them were reused as building material. Here parts of the basin beloved by the citizens were probably taken home and possibly venerated as a relic. In 1782, the sculptor Girolamo Ticciate created a new multicolored Baroque altar to replace the old Romanesque one. At that time, Antonio Francesco Gori was far-sighted in collecting marble fragments and graphic documentation of the old marble age, so that at the beginning of the 19th century, when restoration work was being carried out to restore the Romanesque character of the church, it could be reproduced in a very similar way by Castellucci.
Modern restoration and conservation
Intensive restoration work began in 1894, during which the remains of Roman buildings were found during excavations and medieval tombs outside the building. In order to solve the permanent problem of rainwater penetrating the dome, the architect Luigi del Moro was commissioned to seal the roof. Here, the protruding ribs on the roof were replaced by a flat closure without interruptions. The Opificio delle Pietre Dure was commissioned to renovate the dome and the apse. For this purpose, the mosaic stones were removed and reinserted using a new technique. The mosaics were also restored where they were only replaced by painting after old destruction. As already mentioned, Castellucci replaced the baroque altar. However, the original plan to restore the old baptismal font was dropped.
In the second half of the 20th century, efforts were made to preserve the exterior, which was threatened by aggressive environmental influences. The statues above the east portal were also moved to the cathedral museum. The restoration of the Gate of Paradise began after the flooding of Florence in 1966, when some reliefs were torn from the frame. Improper cleaning and harmful environmental influences triggered a corrosion process that led to corrosion between the bronze and the gold layer. In 1990 the paradise portal was finally removed and replaced with a copy financed by the Sun Motoyama company . The oxides that were formed in the original would destroy the gilding in the long term, so that after the restoration, the panels are kept in display cases filled with nitrogen in the cathedral museum. In another project, the pollutant influences to which the north portal of Ghiberti and the south portal of Pisano are exposed are currently being measured.
Religious and social importance
The church was central to the religious life of the city, it was an episcopal church for a long time and all native Florentines were baptized here until the 19th century. The building is dedicated to Saint John ( San Giovanni ), the patron saint of the city, who enjoyed great popular veneration. The octagonal shape of the building is a symbol of the eighth day, the day of Christ as a symbol of hope in the resurrection. The light fell through the lantern directly onto the baptismal font and was intended to make the “enlightenment” through Christian consecration tangible. The place is not only a place of baptism, but also of death, as the baptistery was surrounded by a cemetery between the 6th and 14th centuries.
In addition to baptism and death, San Giovanni was also a place of public ritual: a festival has been celebrated annually since 1084 in honor of the patron saint. The city was adorned, the clergy gathered for a solemn procession on the square between the baptistery and cathedral, and wax candles were brought as gifts to the city's saint, San Giovanni. The penitential preacher Girolamo Savonarola temporarily abolished these festivals, which became more and more secular until the 15th century and were accompanied by masked floats with allegorical representations, as they were common at carnival . In the times of the Grand Duchy, the festival was primarily a pompous event for secular rulers. It is still celebrated today and again has a more religious character. The baptistery is still used for church services, but is also open to tourists for a fee.
The Marstempel thesis
Origins
The Mars temple thesis states that the baptistery emerged from a temple dedicated to the Roman god of war Mars during the Roman Empire. This legend goes back to the chronicler and magistral officer Giovanni Villani , who formulated it in the early 14th century. In his opinion, a few years after the city was founded, the Florentine settlers built a temple to Mars with the help of Roman builders. This structure characterized Villani as an octagonal building with an open roof similar to the Pantheon , which was built around the shape of an equestrian statue of Mars. To this day, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri is referred to as the original author or first author of the Martian temple thesis in travel guides, but also by researchers (Jacob, Busigniani) . Dante merely refers to an equestrian statue on an Arno bridge in Florence, which is dedicated to Mars, the god of war , through the utterances of a suicide he meets in the company of Virgil in hell (in the divine comedy ) . In fact, Mars was once the city's patron saint. Villani takes up this legend of the Mars statue and develops the Mars temple thesis, alluding to Dante, in whose work the term Martian temple is not mentioned once. Villani's real goal was to use this legend to declare Florence the legitimate legacy of Rome and to erect a monument to his up-and-coming hometown. It was only through the commentary by the writer and poet Giovanni Boccaccio on Dante's “divine comedy” that the original mention of the Martian temple thesis was completely erroneously attributed to Dante. The Martian temple thesis is part of the Florentine state doctrine and also represented by the Chancellor of Florence Leonardo Bruni and the intellectual Angelo Poliziano , who is loyal to medicine . It was not until the 17th century that it was increasingly questioned.
Reconstructions of the temple of Mars
Among the Medici , who wanted to prove their own noble Roman origins, the Martian temple thesis became the quasi-official founding myth of the city. The rulers of the city, who at that time were in competition with the other Italian principalities, above all Rome, tried to gain political weight by referring to the ancient origins. Cosimo I commissioned Giorgio Vasari with the pictorial representation of the "Temple of Mars thesis " in the Palazzo Vecchio , Vincenzo Borghini was to provide historical evidence for the thesis. In the Discorsi published in 1584 , however, Borghini also presents a visual reconstruction. Vasari paints his idea of the original Martian temple as part of the Fondazione di Florentia (1563), which adorns the ceiling of the Sala dei 500 in the Palazzo Vecchio. His Mars temple is a one-story, towering, open column architecture that stands on a base with a two-tier stylobate . Although the basic octagonal shape is retained, the building is not three-story, like the later baptistery, but one-story. In addition to the octagonal shape, Vasari only took over the stripe incrustation of the corner pillars from the Baptistery, which, however, according to Vasari's Viten (1550), is a feature of Arnolfo di Cambio's medieval architecture and therefore does not fit the intention of the picture to reinforce the Martian temple thesis. It was not until 1568 , in a newly written Vita by Arnolfo di Cambio, that Vasari assumed that the strip incrustation was already present and that only the sandstone was replaced by better marble. It remains unclear to this day whether Vasari actually started his Martian temple reconstruction from the widespread Martian temple thesis, which stated that the baptistery was a Martian temple from Roman times that had been preserved with modifications. According to the art historian Gerhard Strähle, the contradictions in which Vasari got entangled in the reconstruction arose because Vasari was commissioned with the reconstruction, but “given the thorough knowledge of antiquity that he possessed, he never considered the Florentine Baptistery to be an ancient building . "
Appearance
The size of the building is astonishing if you measure it against the small population in Florence in the 11th century. The height of the pantheon is only 1/5 below; In terms of space, 2/3 of the Roman model is achieved. Practical requirements cannot explain the dimensions. Rather, it is about "architecture as a carrier of meaning": a representative building with which the prominent position of Florence as an outpost of the papal direction should be documented in the age of the investiture controversy (1077: walk to Canossa ). The building is a simple central building with a rectangular apse and tent roof. The building is strongly based on ancient models. It has a regular octagonal floor plan , the pyramidal roof is closed off by a lantern. The building is three-story on the outside, with only the first two floors corresponding to the inner wall. The ogival dome connects to the inside of the second floor . There is a gallery inside on the second floor. The building is clad in two layers on the outside, i. H. the outer wall has a front and rear level.
facade
The facade of the building was designed with white marble from Lunigiana and green marble from Prato . This style is known as the incrustation style and is directly linked to antiquity. The geometric motifs are designed according to the ancient Roman model. The lower pilasters carry an entablature, the upper polygonal columns are closed off by round arches. There are three windows on each side between the three round arches.
inner space
The interior of the Battistero is a little deeper than the street, so you first go down a few steps and enter a floor lined with geometric mosaics, in the center of which an empty space marks the location of the mighty baptismal font, which was removed in 1557 . Like the facade, the interior is also adorned with marble incrustations. Columns, pilasters and (in front of the gallery) arches were placed in front of these on two floors, they divide the interior and dissolve the surfaces of the walls. Like the entire building, the interior is also the result of centuries of effort; it is particularly noticeable that there is a tomb of the antipope John XXIII on the wall immediately to the right of the altar . who left a large legacy for further decoration of the Battistero and thus received this prominent burial place. The tomb was magnificently carved by Donatello and Michelozzo in marble and gilded bronze and is executed as a canopy tomb , the first of its kind in the Renaissance. Three allegorical sculptures representing faith, love and hope are placed on a pedestal and carry the sarcophagus of the deceased. Above this is an extraordinarily detailed depiction of the deceased on the death bed, crowned by a canopy carved in stone. In the interior, between the apse and the south portal, there are also two old Roman sarcophagi, which later became tombs for Guccio de Medici (1299) and Bishop Giovanni da Velletri (1230), for which they were each supplemented with a new cover. Between the two sarcophagi there is a marble statue of John the Baptist by Giuseppe Piamontini (1664–1742) the Cosimo III. de 'Medici donated to the baptistery. To the right of the rebuilt altar is an Easter candlestick, which was probably created in 1320 by a Giovanni di Giacomo. On the right on the wall next to the apse is a sarcophagus of Bishop Ranierei (d. July 12, 1113).
dome
The dome was designed from 1225 with a diameter of 26 m in eight rings by famous artists such as Giotto or Cimabue with one of the world's largest mosaic cycles; This mosaic dominated by a huge figure of Christ was only completed after almost 100 years. The round picture was created between 1260 and 1275 and has a diameter of eight meters. Christ is represented as a judge with the elect on his right hand, and with his left hand pointing the damned from among the dead, who rise from their coffins under him, into the kingdom of hell. A terrifying devil can be seen in Hell, snakes crawl out of its ears and eats people. Its design is attributed to Coppo di Marcovaldo . In the lower right corner of Hell, Judas is still hanging on his gallows. In the inner area of the dome, the heavenly hosts can be seen, which is why biblical stories are told in four stripes counterclockwise: Inside, scenes from Genesis . Then scenes from the life of Joseph the Hebrew. Scenes from the life of Jesus are told in the second row, on the very outside, the story of John the Baptist. Art historians suspect that many mosaic masters came from Venice , Pisa and Lucca and influenced the design with their regional style, which also contained Byzantine elements.
Sculptures
The three groups of sculptures, each with three figures, are located on the outside of the baptistery above the portals between the two central columns and under the windows of the second floor.
The baptism of Christ (east side)
With the Baptism of Christ , the group of sculptures is thematically linked to the group of sculptures that Tino di Caimaino had created for the south portal, which was removed for the new sculptures. Sansovino originally wanted to focus the scene on the Savior and the Baptist, but Danti added the angel, which is part of the classic iconographic tradition, to the figures. Christ turns slightly to John, whose body remains turned forward while he has turned his head to Christ. The angel stands slightly bent towards Christ.
The sermon of John the Baptist (north side)
The three bronze figures above the north portal were designed by Francesco Rustici. They show John speaking to the Levite and the Pharisee next to him. On the base of the figures the dialogue they are conducting can be read in Hebrew: the bearded Pharisee on the left asks, “What are you going to tell me?” The bald Levite asks: “Who are you, Elias?”. John the Baptist speaks: “A voice in the desert calls: Prepare the way.” However, the figures speak for themselves even without the text. Self-confident and demanding, Johannes submits his message to the figures to his right and left.
The beheading of John the Baptist (south side)
The group of sculptures above the south portal was executed in bronze by Vincenzo Danti , who at the same time continued Andrea Sansovino's work. The dramatic depiction shows John the Baptist kneeling, waiting for the executioner's sword to be blown to his right. Salomé to his left leans back fearfully and raises his hand in defense.
Bronze portals
The three gold-plated bronze doors are also famous. They were created over a period of around 120 years. The first door (1330) was made by Andrea Pisano and is still based purely on the Gothic , while the change to the early Renaissance takes place between the second and third doors, both of which are by Ghiberti : 1st door 1403–1424, 2nd door ("Paradiespforte") 1425–1452.
These bronze doors were not cast by the artists themselves. This was done by specialists who were familiar with this extremely difficult business. Bronze was used as a material in ancient times, but was of no importance in the Middle Ages. There was only marble and other types of stone for plastic. Now, at the beginning of the Renaissance, bronze was rediscovered in Florence and quickly spread throughout Italy from Florence. Soon it was considered the noble material par excellence and was used in all works that had the ambition to compete with antiquity. The artists themselves only made the wax models that formed the basis of the later works of art.
The south portal (Andrea Pisano)
In a golden inscription at the top of the portal is written in Latin , “ANDREAS: UGOLINI: NINNI: DE: PISIS: ME: FECIT: A: D: M: CCC: XXX”, that is: “Andrea di Ugolini di Nino from Pisa created me in 1330 ”. Pisano proudly announced this in 1330, when the wax model of the bronze casting was finished. Leonardo d'Avanzo , a specialist in bronze casts from Venice, helped with the execution of the completed bronze casting .
There are 14 squares on each of the bronze door leaves on the bronze door. In the squares is a quatrefoil admitted where bronze statues are seen. The frame strips are decorated with flowers, the corners are closed with lion heads. The twenty images above tell of the life of John the Baptist. In the lower eight there are allegorical representations of the divine virtues . In addition to the four cardinal virtues (strength, moderation, justice, prudence) and the three theological virtues (hope, faith, mercy). An eighth field had to be designed for reasons of symmetry. So humility was added, which can also be seen as the leitmotif of the life of John the Baptist. The scenes from the life of John are divided in terms of content, the left wing tells the story of the preacher, on the right one sees scenes from his martyrdom and his death. The narration takes place first on the left door wing from top left to bottom right, and then on the right. In addition to the Pisan Giovanni Pisano , the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone and French sculpture are among Andrea Pisano's influences.
The north portal (Lorenzo Ghiberti)
The goal of the competition for the design of the portal, which Ghiberti won, was to stick to the structure of Andrea Pisano's door. The door leaves and frames were cast in one piece in bronze with a patina , the reliefs were gilded with mercury and later embedded. The portal contains twenty episodes from the New Testament, showing the lower eight four-passages, analogous to the structure of Pisano's Gate, eight church fathers and evangelists. Originally, scenes from the Old Testament had been planned for the gate, but the decision was made to link the content of the life of John the Baptist, the "forerunner of the Lord", and to tell the life of Jesus. The scenes must be read in a different order than on Pisano's portal, starting with the third row from the bottom (i.e. above the Church Fathers and Evangelists) from left to right across both door leaves and from bottom to top. Instead of the lion heads, Ghiberti placed prophets, prophetesses and sibyls who represent the hope of the coming of the Lord. One head stands out a little because of its “modern” clothing: On the left door wing, in the middle, the third head from below, a man with a headscarf can be seen. This is probably a self-portrait of Ghiberti, as there is one at the Paradise Gate. Ghiberti also signed his work with the inscription "OPUS LAURENTII FLORENTINI". The portal is framed by elegant foliage. Although “figures, trees and similar bespoke work” were reserved for Ghiberti personally, other artists such as Donatello , Michelozzo , Masolini and Paolo Uccello , for whom working on the portal represented an important learning period, also worked in the workshop . Art historians already see a maturation process in Ghiberti's work in the first portal, in which he moves from Gothic-influenced panels, such as the Annunciation and the Birth of Christ, to panels with more sophisticated perspectives such as the Capture of Christ and the flagellation , which can already be attributed to the early Renaissance. The door wings of the north portal with the New Testament scenes were originally on the east side of the baptistery. Only then was the door for the north side commissioned, this time with scenes from the Old Testament. But this time Ghiberti dispensed with the four-pass frame and limited the number of reliefs to ten squares. The overwhelming beauty of this door prompted the Calimala to insert the east door with the New Testament scenes in the north portal and to erect the new door with the Old Testament reliefs in the east portal because of its beauty.
The East Portal (The Gate of Paradise) (Lorenzo Ghiberti)
The wool merchants' guild, who were very satisfied with Ghiberti's work, commissioned him to create another portal in 1425 . The original plan to construct the gate with the same structure as the other two was only discarded when the work had already started, as shown by the back, which is still divided into 28 squares. It was probably Ghiberti who, in keeping with the taste of the Renaissance, preferred the ten large squares to the small Gothic four-pass frames. In terms of content, biblical episodes from the Old Testament were selected, as had already been planned for Ghiberti's first portal.
Ghiberti, who was entrusted with the task of another portal without a new competition, was granted great artistic freedom, an expression of the emerging humanism, which gave the artist a central role. In this act of the emancipation of the master craftsman against the intentions of the client, which for the first time came into full effect, what is known as the "turning point in the social history of European art" had occurred.
The first three panels deal with God's role as Savior of the Jews. Ghiberti also carried out the sacrifice of Isaac , which he had already designed for the competition. In the next panel, Isaac transfers the birthright from Esau to Jacob . Furthermore, scenes from the lives of Joseph , Moses , Joshua and David are told. The tenth panel is also considered a political statement on a contemporary event: The Council of Florence in 1439 under Eugene IV aims at the unification of the Roman and Eastern Churches, symbolically longed for in the meeting of the Queen of Sheba with Solomon . From the Sienese landscape painters, for example Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel , he adopted the technique of depicting several scenes in one picture. The bas-relief technique is a visual trick he adopted from Donatello to add depth to the image. The further away they stand from the viewer, the flatter the figures. The frieze cladding for the Gate of Paradise with its garlands, which is crowned in the middle by the eagle, the symbol of the wool merchants, was completed by Ghiberti and his son Vittorio. After the completion of the Paradise Gate, the aged Ghiberti was also commissioned to clad Andrea Pisano's gate with a frieze to create a uniform appearance. In fact, the frieze was executed by his son until 1466.
Architectural classification
The baptistery is now often the so-called. Protorenaissance attributed. What is meant here is a style in which artistic borrowings from antiquity were made between the 11th and 13th centuries, which virtually precede the Renaissance . The structure clearly has a classic, antique structure, but modifies these elements, for example by incrusting the facade. However, the entire oeuvre cannot be assigned to one epoch, the portals alone reflect an artistic development that encompasses different stylistic epochs. In addition to the Romanesque facade and the Gothic Pisano Gate , Byzantine influences can also be seen, as well as the Renaissance art in Ghiberti's Paradise Gate . Even a baroque altar adorned the building, which was later removed. Overall, the building appears coherent, despite the long time it took to build and although all the main currents of Florentine art and generations of artists are reflected in it.
photos
Gate of Paradise: Joshua
Gate of Paradise: Esau and Jacob
Interior view of the mosaic completely
Dome with the Last Judgment
opposite side of the dome
Round picture with Christ in the dome
altar
Baptismal font
Individual evidence
- ↑ Hugh Honor, John Fleming: World History of Art. 5th edition. Prestel, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7913-2094-7 , p. 335.
- ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture - sculpture - painting - drawing. Könemann, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-89508-054-3 , p. 177.
- ↑ Ross King: The Miracle of Florence. Architecture and intrigue: How the world's most beautiful dome was created. 3. Edition. Albrecht Knaus Verlag GmbH, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-8135-0160-4 , p. 32.
- ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture - sculpture - painting - drawing. Könemann, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-89508-054-3 , p. 184.
- ^ Vasari's Martian temple in the founding picture of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (Gerhard Strähle)
- ↑ Klaus Zimmermanns: Florence. A European center of art. History, monuments, collections. 6th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1441-8 , p. 45.
- ↑ Sources: Uwe Geese, Sculpture of the Italian Renaissance , in: The Art of the Italian Renaissance , ed. by Rolf Toman, Cologne 1994, and Alexander Perrig , Lorenz Ghiberti, Die Paradiesestür - Why an artist breaks the frame , Frankfurt am Main 1987, as well as this: The Renaissance artist as a scientist , in: Art, The history of their functions, ed. by Werner Busch and Peter Schmooch, Weinheim and Berlin 1987.
- ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture - sculpture - painting - drawing. Könemann, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-89508-054-3 , p. 179.
literature
- Annamaria Giusti: The Baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence. Mandragora, Florence 2000, ISBN 88-85957-57-9 .
- Giuseppe Marchini: Baptistery, Duomo and Cathedral Museum in Florence. KR Langewiesche, Königstein im Taunus 1980, ISBN 3-7845-6130-6 .
- Claudio Montrésor: The Museum of the Opera del Duomo of Florence. Schnell & Steiner et al., Regensburg et al. 2003. ISBN 3-7954-1615-9 .
- Joachim Poeschke : Mosaics in Italy 300-1300. Hirmer, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-7774-2101-8 .
- Gerhard Straehle: The Marstempel thesis. Dante, Villani, Boccaccio, Vasari, Borghini. The story of the origin of the Florentine baptistery in literature from the 13th to the 20th century. Gerhard Straehle, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-936275-00-9 .
- Rolf C. Wirtz: Florence. Könnemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2659-5
Web links
Coordinates: 43 ° 46 ′ 24 ″ N , 11 ° 15 ′ 17 ″ E