To wax eloquent about someone's embossed silver, sumptuous carpets or marble statuary was to indict him.

WSJ: Still Under Cleopatra's Spell

The winners, Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, were in their early 20s, and their winning bronze panels are here side by side, along with examples of the classical Roman statuary they incorporated: one of the many marble versions of the "Boy with a Thorn" for Brunelleschi, and the muscular red marble torso of a centaur for Ghiberti.

WSJ: Review: The Flowering of the Florentine Renaissance | 'Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence 1400�C1460,' at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence