Filippo Brunelleschi, The Sacrifice of Isaac, 1401

Filippo Brunelleschi's The Sacrifice of Isaac depicts the biblical story of Abraham's test from God. In order to examine the strength of his faith, God put Abraham to the ultimate test and asked him to sacrifice his son Isaac and upon agreeing to do so, angels swoop in to stop the act. Although there are probably a million things wrong with the passage, and I would hope my father would never come this close to ending my life, Brunelleschi portrays the last gasp moment beautifully. I admired his quality craftsmanship that, of course, came from being the goldsmith that he was. However, after further investigation, his piece did not quite cut it. Lorenzo Ghiberti had done it again, beating him in competition, only to further generate the hatred felt for him by Brunelleschi.

Picking himself up from the defeat, Brunelleschi traveled immediately to Rome to study architecture. Judging by his architectural prowess, his change of field was very successful and yes, he managed to succeed in revenge as well. What else do you do when your sworn enemy works for you? Let him screw up of course, because Brunelleschi could clearly do it better, as he showed time and time again and ultimately embarrassed Ghiberti during their work with the Florence Cathedral.