ghosts 295involved in the most important architectural enterprise of
the time in Florence, the completion of the dome of the
cathedral begun by BRUNELLESCHI.
After a trip to VENICEin 1424, Ghiberti returned to
Florence, and in 1425 he received the commission for
the east doors of the Baptistery. The doors, different
from his earlier set, opened on Paradise. Finishing and
gilding took even longer, and not until 1452 were the
doors installed. In each panel there are several scenes,
the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, and their
Expulsion from the Garden, the Temptation. They were
all in very low relief and very much in a Renaissance
style.
During the last years of his life from 1450, Ghiberti
wrote his Commentaries.They dealt with the relative
merits of artists of classical antiquity and comparative
descriptions of works of art in various cities that he had
visited. The third part has been a principal source of
our knowledge of 14th-century art in Florence and
Siena. Another section included his autobiography, the
earliest by an artist that has survived. A last section
dealt with a humanist analysis of the eye, its makeup,
its functions, and the relation of sight to the behavior
of light.
He married Marsilia di Bartolomeo di Luca and had
two sons, the artists Tommaso and Vittorio. Vittorio
(1416–96) continued the workshop after his father’s
death on December 1, 1455.
Further reading:David Finn, The Florence Baptistery
Doors (New York: Viking Press, 1980); Richard
Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1982); Giustina Scaglia, “Ghiberti,” The
Dictionary of Art12.536–545; Charles Seymour, Sculpture
in Italy: 1400 to 1500(Baltimore: Penguin, 1966).
ghihad SeeJIHAD.
Ghirlandaio, Domenico (Domenico di Tommaso
Bigordi)(1449–1494)Florentine artist
Giorgio Vasari (1517–74), writing about Ghirlandaio in
the 16th century, said that he was born in FLORENCEand
received his earliest training from his father, Tommaso, a
goldsmith and famous maker of garlands. He was later
perhaps apprenticed to Alessio Baldovinetti (1426–99).
Other artists, however, must have influenced his works,
among these a young Michaelangelo (1475–1564),
Andrea del Castagno (ca. 1421–57), Domenico Veneziano
(ca. 1400–61), and Andrea del Verrocchio (1435–88).
Among the most popular artists of his day, and unable to
fulfill the many commissions he received, he had to
employ a large and well-organized group of assistants in
his bottegaor shop. This method led to a general deterio-
ration in his artistic achievement and a monotony in his
later compositions. He was rarely afterward employed by
any cultured patron seeking sophisticated work.
Ghirlandaio, however, was an excellent painter of
portraits. His FRESCOESare filled with people faithfully
but superficially depicted. His other portraits were digni-
fied and formal.MOST SIGNIFICANT WORKS
Among his first works, dating probably from 1472, was
the Virgin of Mercy in Florence in the Church of the
Ognissanti or All Saints. Ghirlandaio did his most
respected work in two Frescoes for the chapel of Santa
Fina, painted around 1475, for the Collegial Church of
San Gimignano near Florence. Soon afterward this spon-
taneity and balanced inspiration gave way to the formulas
produced in his workshop.
Called to ROMEin 1481, he painted in the new Sis-
tine Chapel. Conscious of the high distinction bestowed
on him, he was not very successful in displaying religious
feeling; he did, however, successfully depict a worldly
display of a contemporary gathering of Florentines in
Rome portrayed by him as at the calling of the first apos-
tles.
The mature expression of his style permeate the cycle
painted in 1486 for the Sassetti chapel in Santa Trinità in
Florence. Replete with historical portraits of the MEDICI
family and their extended clan, many scenes were set in
the familiar cityscape of Florence. These later paintings
revealed rather self-satisfied Florentine nobles showing
off their power and prestige close to GOD. He died on
January 11, 1494.
Further reading:Eve Borsook, Francesco Sassetti and
Ghirlandaio at Santa Trinità, Florence: History and Legend
in a Renaissance Chapel(Doornspijk, Holland: Davaco,
1981); Jeanne K. Cadogan, Domenico Ghirlandaio: Artist
and Artisan(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,
2000); Emma Micheletti, Domenico Ghirlandaio (Flo-
rence: Scala, 1990).ghosts In the ancient classical world there was a
widespread belief that the spirits of the dead, or ghosts,
returned to Earth to visit and torment the living, espe-
cially if the deceased were disturbed about something or
dissatisfied with actions of those still alive. The Greeks
and Romans made some effort to honor, respect, and pla-
cate their ancestors. Wary of the consequences of these
ideas in terms of the importance of the church’s power
and relationship with the afterlife, Augustine denied the
possibility of any relations between the living and the
dead in his “On the Care to Be Taken When Dealing with
the Dead.” Only the saints in heaven might be able
to concern themselves with the living or, perhaps even
with the help of GOD, intervene in earthly affairs. Visits
from the dead could be imaginary creations, dreams, or
diabolically sponsored illusions. The duty of all Chris-
tians was to pray only for the salvation of the deceased
and not expect information or help from beyond the