The Commencement of the Renaissance

These two panels were entries and the finalists of a contest in 1401 of Lorenzo Ghiberti (left) and Filippo Brunelleschi (right), to create the best bronze relief of Abraham's sacrifice of his son Isaac. In 1402, Ghiberti's piece was selected by judges in Florence, and he won the prestigious honor of designing and constructing the bronze doors of the baptistery, doors now called the 'Gates of Paradise', and so thus reads the beginnings of what we now call the Renaissance.