这个故事是以一场比赛开始的。这场比赛不是看谁跑得最快或者看谁口哨吹的最响。这是一场更为艰巨的比赛，每位参赛者都有一年的准备时间来赢得比赛。
这是一场雕刻比赛。故事是这样开始的：在意大利佛罗伦萨有一座八边形的小型建筑，叫“洗礼堂”，就是婴儿或成人受洗之处。它有四个入口处，其中一个入口处有两扇精美的青铜门，门上刻着雕刻家安德里亚·皮萨诺的浮雕。安德里亚·皮萨诺去世后很久，佛罗伦萨人才决定为另外一个入口安装一对青铜门。那时候，有好几个很棒的雕刻家住在佛罗伦萨，人们很难决定谁是制作新门的最佳人选。他们只好发起了一场比赛。规则如下：每位参赛者必须雕刻一座青铜浮雕，与门相配。浮雕内容必须是关于亚伯拉罕和以撒的。每位参赛者都有一年时间来完成作品，然后经一个由三十四人组成的裁判团来决定获胜者。最后由获胜者制作新门。雕刻家们便着手工作。所有的参赛者都非常小心，不让别人看到他们的作品，直到一年期限结束时才作公示，但有个人例外。此人叫洛伦佐·吉贝尔蒂。他不停地工作，还请朋友们过来提意见，然后再加强修改，直到完善。
一年期限到了，雕刻家们将作品都呈交到裁判面前。你猜结果怎样？裁判很难评出最佳作品。有两件作品并列第一。其中一件是吉贝尔蒂的作品，另一件是著名建筑师布鲁内列斯基的作品。不过，布鲁内列斯基很清楚自己的浮雕作品比不上吉贝尔蒂的，所以就很大气地主动退出，这就让吉贝尔蒂成了最后的赢家。裁判团宣告那门就由吉贝尔蒂来建造。
吉贝尔蒂开始工作了。他工作啊工作，一年、两年、五年、十年过去了，他还在工作。真难想象他到底花了多长时间。我们来看看他是哪天开始哪天结束的。他1403年开始雕刻浮雕，直到1424年造完两扇门。
“什么？”你惊讶地说：“做两扇门要花二十一年？时间太长了！”
门终于做好了，并在洗礼堂安上。这两扇门从中间打开，门上有二十八块镶板或场景浮雕，主要讲述耶稣的生平故事。每件浮雕按场景单独雕刻，然后再组合镶嵌。吉贝尔蒂制作的门“引起了极大的轰动”。因为佛罗伦萨人都喜欢这门，于是就请吉贝尔蒂再为洗礼堂的另一个入口做一对青铜门。这一次就不需要比赛了。人们已经知道吉贝尔蒂是这份工作独一无二的人选。吉贝尔蒂开始了新门的制作。他工作，工作，再工作。一年、两年、五年、十年，都二十年了，他还在做门。他1425年着手制作，到1452年完成。啊！花了二十七年？真是漫长岁月啊！
这时，他终于完工了。这门制作精美，很多人都说简直无可挑剔。后来，有个著名雕刻家评论说：“这门堪称天国的大门。”从此，人们称它为“天国之门”了。
天国之门上雕刻了十个取自旧约故事的场景。第四场景的浮雕特写图，讲的是亚伯拉罕的故事。
A TREASURE HUNTER AND A SECRET
寻宝人和秘密
HAVE you ever had spring fever？Both kinds of spring fever？Yes，there are two kinds.
Do you remember how lazy and sleepy and tired you have sometimes felt on a warm spring day，when you didn’t want to study or work or play or even eat？That’s one kind of spring fever.
Then again，do you remember how energetic and healthy and restless you have sometimes felt in spring？When you wanted to run and shout and turn handsprings，when sitting still was terrible，when you felt as if you could do anything hard and beat anybody at anything？That’s the second kind of spring fever.
Well，after the Middle Ages，the whole world got spring fever；and it was the second kind，the full-of-energy spring fever，and it lasted not just a few days in spring but many years.
Italy caught the fever first，about 1400.Just as life is born again in the spring after the dark winter and blossoms forth in green leaves and bright flowers，so new life was born again in painting，architecture，writing，sculpture，exploration，discovery，trade，and everything else，and blossomed forth after the dark of the Middle Ages.
This Born Again time，we call the Renaissance—a word that means Rebirth.
Now，one of the germs that had made the world catch this Renaissance fever was the interest people began to take in the skill and learning of ancient times.Statues and buildings that had been buried in the ground since Roman times were dug up.Old Roman and Greek writings were brought to light and read again.In learning what the Ancients had done in art the Renaissance people did some great things in art themselves.
One of the first sculptors to make a thorough study of the Roman statues was named Donatello.He lived in Florence，but when still a very young man，he went to Rome with a friend named Brunelleschi.In Rome the two friends spent their time hunting through the old ruins for any beautiful Roman work they could find.Brunelleschi was more interested in architecture and he measured the old Roman buildings while Donatello looked for sculpture.Soon people called them the Treasure Hunters because they always seemed to be looking for buried treasure.
When the two Treasure Hunters came back to Florence，Donatello made a beautifulmarble gallery for singers，for the wall at one end of the cathedral.The outside of the gallery he filled with sculpture of little children，who look like cupids，dancing and singing.It is a very wonderful piece of work，full of life and action.
Donatello’s next famous statue was set up on the outside of a church in Florence.It is of Saint George.Saint George was a Christian in the Roman army at a time when it was very unsafe to be a Christian.To show he was not afraid of being called a Christian，he wore on his shield a bright red cross with a white background.This has ever since been called the cross of Saint George and is a part of the flag of England，for Saint George was adopted by the English as their favorite saint.He was a brave man and whenthe Roman emperor began to persecute the Christians，Saint George went to him and asked him to stop.For this，and because Saint George was a Christian，the emperor had him killed.
Of course Donatello didn’t know what the real Saint George looked like，as he had lived so long before，and so this statue is not a portrait statue.It is what Donatello thought a fine，brave young Christian officer in the Roman army ought to look like.So many other people，too，thought this was what Saint George ought to look like that the statue became very famous.It is very lifelike.
“There is only one trouble with it，”some one told Donatello.
“’What is that？”asked the sculptor，whoNo.45-1SAINT GEORGE（《圣乔治》）DONATELLO（唐纳泰罗制）was afraid the man had found some fault in the statue.
“The trouble is it can’t speak，”said the man.
Donatello’s most famous work was of a man on horseback.I’ll tell you about that in the next chapter，for in this chapter I still have to tell you about a secret.Can you keep a secret？
A sculptor who was a friend of Donatello’s had a secret.It was a very good secret and he didn’t tell any one except his adopted son.The adopted son had five sons of his own and when they grew up they were let into the secret，too.It was a family secret.
The sculptor who had the secret in the first place was named Luca della Robbia.Like Donatello，he lived in Florence.He was a little younger than Donatello and so we call him the second great sculptor of the Renaissance.Luca della Robbia made statues in marble and bronze.One of his works in marble was a gallery to go on the end wall in the cathedral，opposite Donatello’s marble gallery.