Early Southern Renaissance

The work of art from the early Italian Renaissance that I have chosen to examine is the Jacob and Esau, Panel of the “Gates of Paradise”” (East doors) by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The panel, by itself, is 79cm square and made of gilded bronze. My initial reaction to it was how well I thought space was portrayed, along with how well the figures are formed in the bronze.

The linear perspective used in this scene gives off a very strong portrayal of depth in the panel, and it can even be seen represented as the floor tiles within the scene. These tiles continue far into the background before fading into the unknown. Figures in the panel also decrease in size the farther they are into the background, and like the lines of the tiles they too begin to slowly fade away. This fading, or vanishing, seems to be form of atmospheric perspective because the figures become fuzzier and loose a lot of their definition. This can especially be seen when Rebecca is listening to G-d and when she is giving birth to her two sons.

While this linear perspective is drawing the eyes of the viewer into the scene, there is also a story advancing from the background to the foreground. This continuing narrative tells the story of the lives of Jacob and Esau through the use of calculated spacing between the scenes, so that the viewer will be able to follow along in only one panel. I'm not sure though if this scene would be considered as a Historia. It has the characteristics of one, it tells a historic story, it instructs the viewer in a pleasurable way, it has a large number of figures placed in a wide variety of dramatic and emotive poses, but I'm not sure if I see any of the figures communicating to the viewer. None of them are starring out at the viewer, but there is one figure in the center of the panel that appears as if he could be pointing at an important feature within the panel.

The light and shadow used across the bronze also adds depth and form to both the scene and to the figures within it. This is the only use of color in the panel, and it is executed very well. Through the play of light and shadow human form can easily be seen beneath clothing, and clothing it self takes on form through the shadows created within its folds. The shadows inside the architecture, coupled by the perspective of the ceiling and arches, creates a very believable building and space within the scene. It's almost as if the figure could take his finger and poke it all the way through to the other end of the building.

The style of the figures, and of the scene, is very naturalistic and classical. Several figures can be seen in either a contrapposto, or semi contrapposto like stance. Their bodies are proportionate and you can see foreshortening happening with some of the figures. One good example is the figure in the center of the foreground, standing either as if he has just taken a step, or as if he is in contrapposto. His left leg is raised and pushed out into our space, and foreshortened to make it seem like a believable pose.

The scale used for the figures and the scene is also very believable and naturalistic. The dog seems to be the correct size of a dog; all of the humans throughout the space are proportionate, and the building is a large and believable space that the viewer could easily see the figures walking around in.

One other interesting thing about some of the figures in the panel is that parts of their bodies, or clothing, extend outside of the panel and enter into our space. It makes it seem as if the figures are not contained within the work of art, and could easily move around and venture outwards to the other gilded panels on the door.