GHIBERTI, Lorenzo
(b. 1378, Firenze, d. 1455, Firenze)

St Stephen

1429
Partially gilded bronze, height 230 cm
Museo di Orsanmichele, Florence

During the execution of the Gates of Paradise, Ghiberti received a number of prestigious commissions. On 2 April 1425 the Arte di Lana (Wool guild) decided to replace their marble statue of St Stephen at Orsanmichele, which dated from 1340, with a bronze figure and a new tabernacle; clearly they did not wish to be outdone by the rich guilds of the Calimala and Zecca. Ghiberti received the commission in that year, and the statue, originally partly gilded, was placed on the west side of Orsanmichele.

The model for the statue was completed on 5 August 1427, and the whole work, including gilding, on 1 February 1429. Critics have generally been reserved in their praise of St Stephen. It is true that the statue does not represent any further progress in Ghiberti's move towards 'modern' contrapposto, begun in his St Matthew. As in the statue of St John the Baptist, the pose and movement are chiefly expressed in the soft undulations of the voluminous garment. However, the unity of composition is much more emphasized than in the statue of St John, and the sensitive modelling of the head, perhaps influenced by that of Donatello's St Louis (Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce, Florence), is unsurpassed by any other of Ghiberti's works.




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