The 1401 competition that changed everything. 🏛️📜

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]All the way back in 1401, the city of Florence held a competition to see which promising young artist would get to design the Baptistery doors. I know I've already spoiled it, and we know that it was Ghiberti who ended up [music] designing the doors, but it's the competition that was important. The two finalists were, of course, Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi, of Brunelleschi's dome fame. So, [music] Brunelleschi took his door and created this high-tension violent scene of Abraham about to kill Isaac, [music] probably one of the most emotionally fraught scenes in the entire Bible. And he does capture the drama in a very Renaissance [music] way, especially because he makes Isaac and Abraham actually look anatomically correct, which medieval artists didn't do for a variety of reasons that I've covered in other videos. But the door itself was medieval in its construction. He cast each figure separately and bolted them onto the plate. It ended up just being really heavy and expensive [music] and clunky, and he lost the competition.

[00:00:55]Now, look at the door made by the absolute chad Ghiberti. He cast his panel in a single hollowed-out piece. It was 15 lb lighter than Brunelleschi's.

[00:01:04]He totally bronze mogged him.