Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael and the Image Multiplied. Edward H. Wouk, ed. With David Morris. Exh. cat. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2016. 240 pp. £25.
tellectual history and knowledge of craft reflects Ghiberti’s own knowledge. The book is divided into ten chapters, one for each panel. In most chapters, Bloch tracks the compositions and subjects back to Ghiberti’s readings of classical and contemporary authors such as Vitruvius, Pliny, Dante, and Alberti, and ancient and contemporary theology. She does not neglect the “baptismal context of Ghiberti’s Gates” when discussing the Noah panel, or the doors’ function when discussing viewing angles (73). This is a holistic reading of the door panels, and readers, most of whom will be familiar with the doors, must take time with this book. Bloch challenges Krautheimer’s assertion that Ghiberti was simply applying Alberti’s theory of perspective directly when she discusses the panel of Jacob and Esau. Instead, she shows that it is the sense of “deep space” and emotional ties between the figures that is the panel’s strength (150). TheMoses chapter considers the difficulty of depicting the sounds of thunder, earthquakes, and storms in the natural world. Bloch convincingly suggests that Ghiberti’s insertion of his self-portrait next to that panel was not because of his pride in demonstrating perspective, but because he had successfully challenged Apelles. Pliny’s description of the ancient artist’s painterly skill at depicting natural weather phenomena such as thunder and lightning, “visualiz[ing ] invisible nature,” had now been achieved in bronze (208). Bloch does not leave Ghiberti with his books in the workshop. She also notes that Ghiberti’s three documented trips to Venice may have been to “check on the quality of his copper, or perhaps, to be sure the alloys for his projects were being mixed correctly” (221). This is speculation, but of a very useful kind. Ghiberti was a reader, a thinker, and a writer, but most crucially a maker. Bronze is durable but delicate. The wrong balance of metals will result in disaster, and handling changes the surface. Bloch’s close examination of the panels, and references to Francesca Bewer’s work on the casting technique reveal that Ghiberti reinforced the back of the stone carrier in the Joshua panel (228–30, figs. 226, 228; 317n55). It is this type of detail that will appeal to bronze specialists in particular, though the book should be read by all who work in Italian Renaissance art and literary history.