the Maries are making, insomuch that one who was
present could not have seen them better. Beside this he made Christ on
the Cross, and Our Lady and S. John the Evangelist seated on the ground,
with gestures full of sorrow and wrath. Next to this, on the other side,
there follows His Resurrection, wherein the guards, stunned by the
thunder, are lying like dead men, while Christ is ascending on high in
such an attitude that He truly appears glorified, by reason of the
perfection of His beautiful limbs, wrought by the most ingenious
industry of Lorenzo. In the last space is the coming of the Holy Spirit,
wherein are very sweet expressions and attitudes in those who are
receiving it.

This work was brought to that completion and perfection without sparing
any labour or time that could be devoted to a work in bronze, seeing
that the limbs of the nudes are most beautiful in every part; and in the
draperies, although they hold a little to the old manner of Giotto's
time, there is a general feeling that inclines to the manner of the
moderns, and produces, in figures of that size, a certain very lovely
grace. And in truth the composition of each scene is so well ordered and
so finely arranged, that he rightly deserved to obtain that praise which
Filippo had given him at the beginning--nay, even more. And in like
manner he gained most honourable recognition among his fellow-citizens,
and was consummately extolled by them and by the native and foreign
craftsmen. The cost of this work, with the exterior ornaments, which are
also of bronze, wrought with festoons of fruits and with animals, was
22,000 florins, and the bronze door weighed 34,000 libbre.

[Illustration: S. JOHN BEFORE HEROD

(_After_ Lorenzo Ghiberti. _Siena: Baptistery_)

_Alinari_]

This work finished, it appeared to the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants
that they had been very well served, and by reason of the praises given
by all to Lorenzo they determined that he should make a statue of
bronze, four braccia and a half high, in memory of S. John the Baptist,
on a pilaster without Orsanmichele, in one of the niches there--namely,
the one facing the Cloth-dressers. This he began, nor did he ever leave
it until he delivered it finished. It was and still is a work highly
praised, and in it, on the mantle, he made a border of letters, wherein
he wrote his own name. In this work, which was placed in position in the
year 1414, there is seen the beginning of the good