D. A competition to create bronze doors for a cathedral
Explanation:
The period known as the Renaissance between the 15th and 18th centuries is seen as a time of rupture and innovation in politics, economics, culture and the arts. Since the 14th century, during what the Italians call the Three Hundreds, namely the 1300s, some artists, such as Giotto (1267-1337) and Arnolfo di Cambio (1240-1310), had already been presenting innovations in painting and architecture. , such as sketching perspective drawings (a subject that would later become one of the greatest "inventions" of the Renaissance). But it was at the dawn of the fifteenth century, or the beginning of the Quattrocento, that marks the beginning of the Florentine cultural renaissance.
It is important to highlight that Florence was the main stage of this movement of artistic renewal in the Italian peninsula. Subsequently, new ideas were spreading from Europe.
If it is difficult to pinpoint a precise date or time for the beginning of the period known as the Renaissance, it is easy to highlight a date when this new thinking arose in the arts: 1401, with the competition for the San Giovanni Baptistery Door in Florence.
This building, which served as a baptismal space for Catholics and was dedicated to St. John the Baptist, stands in front of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. Such a building is believed to have been built on the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. The truth is that around the year 1000, it was rebuilt and expanded in the Romanesque style.
As access to the Baptistery, there are three gates (north, south and east) that were initially wooden. In 1330, one of them, to the south, was built in bronze, by Andrea di Pisano, who elaborated it in Gothic style, with 28 panels framed by quadrifoliums that tell the story of John the Baptist and bring representations of the virtues.
Between 1400 and 1401, the contest was held to elect the artist responsible for elaborating the east door of the building. Big names participated and the big clash was between Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455) and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). The work with which they participated was a representation of the biblical passage from the "Sacrifice of Isaac."
In both, one can perceive a new form of representation, in which one seeks to present the characters within a space. While Ghiberti describes space in a succession of plans and episodes, Brunelleschi constructs it with simultaneous movement. In the first, there is a greater concern with the study of Classical Antiquity (one of the fundamental characteristics of the Renaissance), which was much appreciated by the great scholars of the time. In Ghiberti's work one can see that Isaac's torso is very similar to Roman sculptures. Moreover, it is interesting to note the realism of the figures represented: the bodies are all twisted, as if in full motion, while Brunelleschi chose to present his characters only in profile.
Being more consistent with the purposes of the time, Ghiberti was chosen as the winner. However, it is important to highlight Brunelleschi's work, since in him one can glimpse his notion of perceptual space, which he would later enhance and revolutionize architecture.
