The Renaissance

gnoria in Florence since the fifteenth cen-
tury.

Lorenzo Ghiberti’s two sets of baptis-
tery doors, completed over a period of two
decades in Florence, were done in bronze
relief. The rectangular panels were three-
dimensional, sculptural paintings, with the
figures set in landscapes and architectural
backgrounds. The panels represented a
daring technical achievement, with figures
foreshortened and emerging from the
background in three dimensions. In the
work of Donatello and Ghiberti, sculpture
came under the influence of ancient Ro-
man art and its treatment of the human
body and face. The idealized, unearthly
forms of the Middle Ages gradually gave
way to the expressive power of movement
and the depiction of strong human emo-
tions. Other famous Florentine sculptors
were Antonio Pollaiuolo and Andrea del
Verocchio, who is best known for the
group Doubting Thomas, created for the
facade of the church of Orsanmichele. Ja-
copo della Quercia, one of the most skilled
Italian sculptors outside of Florence, lived
and worked in Bologna.

In the Renaissance, sculpture was a dis-
play of wealth and status. Busts decorated
halls and outer niches, full figures and
equestrian statues were raised in public
squares, and members of the nobility com-
peted to patronize the best sculptors and
have their names associated with their
works. Collectors commissioned copies of
Greek and Roman statuary, in marble as
well as bronze, a method that kept the best
workshops of wealthy cities busy.

Michelangelo dominated the area of
sculpture of the sixteenth century. He was
considered by many to be a greater master
of the medium than Roman sculptors, the
highest compliment of the Renaissance.
His principle works includeBacchus; the

Pietà; David, a work more than fourteen

feet high; andMoses, created for the tomb

of Pope Julius II in San Pietro in Vincoli

Church. Four works known as theSlaves

also created for the same tomb, show bod-

ies partially captured in the stone. The al-

legorical use of sculpture, rather than its

use as representation, led the way to the

new Mannerist style that ended the Re-

naissance.

Sculpture at the close of the Renais-

sance became complex, elaborate, and

lacking in the simple classical virtues

widely admired at the start of the era. One

of the most famous works of Benvenuto

Cellini, a skilled metal caster and jeweler,

was a solid gold salt cellar that the artist

designed for the French king Francis I. An-

other Cellini sculpture, the bronzePerseus,

influenced the following generation of Flo-

rentine sculptors, including Giovanni Bo-

logna, the most renowned marble sculptor

of the late Renaissance. The Mannerist

style developed by this sculptor empha-

sized movement and balance, with the fig-

ures skillfully posed in complex arrange-

ments. Giambologna, as he was known,

worked for the Medici dynasty in Florence,

creating sculptures for parks and grottoes

and miniature bronzes for the decoration

of noble households. His most famous

works, includingThe Fountain of Neptune

(created in Bologna),The Rape of the Sab-

ine Womenand several versions ofMer-

cury, had a lasting influence on later sculp-

tors of the Baroque period.

SEEALSO: Cellini, Benvenuto; Donatello;

Ghiberti, Lorenzo; Michelangelo Buonar-

roti

Sforza, Caterina ...............................

(1463–1509)

Countess of the Italian domain of Forli

and a formidable rival to the Borgia fam-

Sforza, Caterina