The Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378 - 1455) won the competition for a new pair of bronze doors for the Florentine Baptistery in 1401.
On completion of these, in 1424, he was commissioned to make a second pair, the so-called 'Gates of Paradise' (1425-52). He also cast bronze statues for the guild church of Orsanmichele, including Saint John and Saint Stephen.
Ghiberti's work was in many respects Gothic in style but he was also one of the first artists to employ a sophisticated scheme of linear perspective. His workshop was an important training ground for large numbers of early 15th-century Florentine artists. He was possibly the first artist to write his autobiography, the 'Commentarii', which also contains valuable information about other Italian painters and sculptors of the period.