Lorenzo Ghiberti’s “Gates of Paradise”: Humanism, History, and Artistic Philosophy in the Italian Renaissance. Amy R. Bloch. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. xxi + 360 pp. $99.99.
program. In support of her argument, Keyvanian invokes Perugino’s Donation of the Keys and Botticelli’s Cleansing of the Lepers. The latter makes a visual reference to the facade of the hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, and Keyvanian convincingly links it to papal charity. Less convincing is the reference to Perugino’s rendition of the Temple of Solomon in the Donation of the Keys. Keyvanian translates the inscription “IMMENSUM SALAMO TEMPLUM TU HOC QUARTE SACRASTI SIXTE OPIBUS DISPAR RELIGIONE PRIOR” as “Sixtus surpassed thee, O Solomon, in the charity of his works, if not in their magnificence.” Apart from other problems in the translation, to render “religion” here as “charity” is tendentious at best. In other respects, however, the author convincingly ties the architectural history of hospitals to power and to urban planning and development in high and late medieval Rome.