Why did Lorenzo Ghiberti believe that ancient art excelled?

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Bronze self-portrait of Lorenzo Ghiberti in relief, set within ornate floral and geometric decoration on the Gates of Paradise at the Florence Baptistery. — Lorenzo Ghiberti Self-portrait by Lorenzo Ghiberti, detail from *Gates of Paradise*, 1425–52; gilded bronze doors formerly on the east side of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Florence, and now on display in Opera del Duomo Museum, Florence.

Lorenzo Ghiberti believed that the excellence of ancient art stemmed from the inseparability of practice and theory. In his work I Commentarii, he argued that this integration was fundamental to the mastery achieved by artists in antiquity.1

Furthermore, Ghiberti, alongside humanist scholars like Leon Battista Alberti, viewed the beauty of antique art as an idealization of nature. For Ghiberti, capturing the essence of this beauty required revealing life by depicting movement, which he considered the most salient visible characteristic of living things. By studying and attempting to recapture the art of the ancients through a humanist lens, Ghiberti developed a new style all’antica, which sought to combine this theoretical depth with grace and naturalism.1