History of Art Survey II Lecture 4 15th CENTURY SCUPLTURE ARCHITECTURE Part I

The competition for the North Doors of the Florentine Baptistery kick-started the Italian Renaissance. Ghiberti, the sculptor who won the competition, will spend his life casting first the North, then the East Doors, which Michelangelo would later call the "Doors of Paradise."
The loser of the Competition, Brunelleschi by name, will become the greatest architect of the 15th century and will go on to build the Dome of the Florentine Cathedral, considered an impossible task. Still another sculptor, Donatello, cast the first bronze free-standing male nude, reviving Greek values. Behind all this stood the Medici family, the de-facto rulers of Florence, who encouraged (and paid for) these remarkable achievements.

Part I of II.