Lorenzo Ghiberti

Lorenzo Ghiberti was a sculptor during the Italian Renaissance. He was born in 1378 outside Florence, Italy.

Ghiberti was trained as a gold smith when he was a young boy in his father’s studio. Ghiberti learned how to work with metal and also how to use design to create beautiful pictures. These types of sculptures are called “Bas Relief” which means, “low relief” or NOT 3 dimensional all the way around.

When he was 21, Ghiberti won a contest to create panels in bronze for the doors of the Baptistry in Florence. This was a major accomplishment and Ghiberti set up his own metal studio to create the door panels

Ghiberti was able to create the illusion of a 3 dimensional room or space by sculpting just the front of the panels.

Today we will be creating our own Bas Relief sculptures in the style of Ghiberti.