| Show t 04 ART OF WE OTHER DAYS SOME GREAT masterpieces MIS M SPECIAL C I 1 A L 0 correspondence 0 ft IM ea F 0 ra 0 F N 4 M the adornment of church doors Is an art of ancient date that still flour ashes in italy the church of santa sabina on the Avent lne at rome baa has a door of cedar wood carved with scriptural scenes and the work dates from the fifth century A few days ago at an interval of fifteen centuries the central door of the florentine cathedral was unveiled in the presence of king victor emmanuel III and its M t kv I 1 k agi YAZ M en 4 ak f af I 1 ewt ki va ja r VT V T 1 ig t vt 7 11 I 1 1 1 I kt div 0 Z t 0 14 P av al z jo V ahr 61 4 i t 3 i J door of florentine cathedral bas in gilded bronze show that the art of adorning doors has not yet died out of italian art As an engraved frontispiece to a book giving hints of the beauty that was within the door or door frame of an ancient church was made a work of bf art it was in 1180 that bonnano of pisa made the gates of the duomo cuomo in his native city years later save two i that Is in 1378 the greatest maker of bronze doors that the world has yet beheld was as born at florence lorenzo ghiberti Brunel leschi lescht born a year before berti bertl who will come into competition with him later is distinguished in the history of art for the construction of the grandiose cipalo on he cathedral pf florence the prototype of michael agelo s cupola ot of st peter a in aarie conatello Po the marvelous sculptor whose influence has been as new wine among the artists of his time was eight years younger than ghiberti the contest of competing artists tor for the commission offered by the signoria tor for the two bronze doors of the bap of san giovanni is well known every visitor to the national museum of the barbello Bar gello in florence may corn pare the specimens of workmanship sent in by the two prominent rivals Brunel leschi and Ghi gilberti bertl a the subject chosen as the flee of isaac this story as has it comprising landscape pe with human figures nude and clothed as well as those of animals the foremost of these figures was to be in full relief the second in halt half relief and the third completion this door divided in the center consists of twenty eight bas has arranged in chronological order each possessing a special frame adorned with a band of ivy leaves and having at each angle the head of a prophet or a sybll twenty of the sub ejects are taken from the new testa ment the others represent the evan gelista and the doctors of the church the baptism of christ begins to show the tendency of gilbertt to the pictorial rather than the sculptural style of expression the perspective of the scene Is felt and the movement of the arm of the baptist la Is quite in the favorite man manier ier ler of the master the movement of the angels on the left present these combinations of rounded lines which ghiberti favored then come the second or eastern doors of the same executed by the same artist and on which he spelt close on twenty years while ghiberti Gt was at work on the first gate Brunel leschi lescht had been beh rendering it possible to apply the rea rules of per spec tive to the arts of design and thus the great master of bronze work world became in his newer effort the supreme type of the painter sculptor the s second cond gate contains only ten pa panels els but any one who studies them will see that they conta n certain scenes and that they resemble pic pie tures as well as has see the marvelous use made of perspective la in tie lie t ie H story of joseph where the great building in the background seems to stand out full and rounded or note again the deep distance into which the eye seem sesmo to penetrate within the porticos in the background of the his tory of jacob and esau volumes might be written upon the subjects heated and mode of their treatment the br ebest and the truest panegyric on them is that which basart tells michael angelo on being asked what he thought of them and whether they were beautiful replied they are so beautiful that they might fit icely stand at the gates of paradise in the presence of such a work as i Z T xv 4 aw 5 A kill 4 4 1 k fv 1 4 r J y WA im ki ajr 4 A 1 eky k 4 V WIN s oil 0 z X A A 15 1 n I 1 it p v all 4 NA f 4 V tomb of michael angelo in low relief the award was given to ghiberti the outcome of the bucce s gained 1 Is to be seel seen in fie vie firt fir t gite which gilberti wrought receiving the corn MIS mission ion for it on nov 93 3 1403 and the contract obi ging urn min to begin the vork on the 1st of december follow ing and continue conti it ditl out Int interims ermis tion feast days excepted until its bs sitf this one has but little praise to be stow upon the bronze door of st peters petel s at pome the work of antonio r k ilarene it is however a specimen of the workmanship of its time and Is s valuable as contributing to a D knowl edge of the art af of that period and is as showing constructions in old home rome which have since been swept out ot of e istance f a i |
