rath of Heaven should be appeased by a thank-offering. Accordingly the
Guild of Wool-merchants promised to add gates on the north and east of
the Baptistery of St. John the Baptist.

A time was appointed for the examination of designs, and many artists
entered into the competition, and sent in their drawings and models. A
great number of these represented the Sacrifice of Isaac. At length all
the models were set aside but two, and these were made by Brunelleschi
and Ghiberti; then the former declared that he thought his rival's
design the best, thus showing a nobility of character which cannot be
too much praised.

The commission was thus given to Ghiberti, who first executed the
northern gates. He began them in 1403, and finished them twenty-one
years later. They illustrate the life of Christ in twenty scenes; they
have also the figures of the evangelists and the four Fathers of the
Church in a beautiful framework of foliage, animals, and other
ornamental figures, which divides and incloses the larger compositions.
These gates are done in a manner much in advance of that of Pisano, and
yet they retain some features of an earlier style which are not found in
Ghiberti's later works. But from the first he showed original talent, as
one may see by his model of the Sacrifice of Isaac, which is preserved
in the Museum of the Bargello, beside that of Brunelleschi.

These northern gates are very beautiful, but those on the east are far
more so; it is of these last that Michael Angelo declared, "They are
worthy to be the gates of Paradise!" These are divided into ten
compartments, representing: 1, Creation of Adam and Eve; 2, History of
Cain and Abel; 3, Noah; 4, Abraham and Isaac; 5, Jacob and Esau; 6,
History of Joseph; 7, Moses on Mount Sinai; 8, Joshua before Jericho; 9,
David and Goliath; 10, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Fig. 83).

This sculptor showed great skill for one in his age, but to us there is
some disappointment in them on account of the crowded appearance of the
figures. Familiarity with them, however, reveals their beauty, and we
find that, in truth, the stories Ghiberti wished to tell are brought out
with much distinctness. They will ever remain one of the great monuments
of the sculpture of the Renaissance.

Ghiberti endeavored to introduce fine backgrounds to his reliefs, which
gave him an opportunity to add figures illustrating other incidents than
the principal one of the work. His sculptures show t