Filippo Brunelleschi

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Filippo Brunelleschi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Filippo Brunelleschi (Italian: [fiˈlippo brunelˈleski];
1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost
architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance.[2]
He is perhaps most famous for his development of
linear perspective and for engineering the dome of the
Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also
include other architectural works, sculpture,
mathematics, engineering and even ship design. His
principal surviving works are to be found in Florence,
Italy.
Little is known about the early life of Brunelleschi,
the only sources being Antonio Manetti and Giorgio
Vasari.[3] According to these sources, Filippo's father
was Brunellesco di Lippo, a lawyer, and his mother
was Giuliana Spini. Filippo was the middle of their
three children. The young Filippo was given a literary
and mathematical education intended to enable him to
follow in the footsteps of his father, a civil servant.
Being artistically inclined, however, Filippo enrolled
in the Arte della Seta, the silk merchants' Guild,
which also included goldsmiths, metalworkers, and
bronze workers. He became a master goldsmith in
1398. It was thus not a coincidence that his first
important building commission, the Ospedale degli
Innocenti, came from the guild to which he
belonged.[4]
Filippo Brunelleschi
Presumed depiction in Resurrection of the Son of
Theophilus, Masaccio
Born
Filippo di ser Brunellesco di
Lippo Lapi[1]
1377
Florence, Italy
Died
April 15, 1446 (aged 68–69)
unknown
Nationality
Italian
In 1401, Brunelleschi entered a competition to design
a new set of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery.
Known for
Architecture, Sculpture,
Seven competitors each produced a gilded bronze
Mechanical engineering
panel, depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac. Brunelleschi's
Notable work Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore
entry, which, with that of Lorenzo Ghiberti, is one of
only two to have survived, made reference to the
Movement
Early Renaissance
Greco-Roman Boy with Thorn, whilst Ghiberti used a
naked torso in the Classical style for his figure of Isaac. In 1403, Ghiberti was announced the victor,
largely because of his superior technical skill: his panel showed a more sophisticated knowledge of
bronze-casting being cast as a single piece. Brunelleschi's panel, by contrast, consisted of several pieces
bolted to the back plate. Ghiberti went on to complete a second set of bronze doors for the baptistery,
whose beauty Michelangelo extolled a hundred years later, saying "surely these must be the "Gates of
Paradise".[5]
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Contents
1 As an architect
1.1 Commissions
1.2 Florence Cathedral
2 Other work
2.1 Invention of linear perspective
2.2 Theatrical machinery
2.3 Death
3 Principal works
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Brunelleschi's dome for the Duomo
of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore
As an architect
There is little biographical information about Brunelleschi's life to
explain his transition from goldsmith to architect and, no less
importantly, from his training in the gothic or medieval manner to the
new classicism in architecture and urbanism that we now loosely call
the Renaissance and of which Brunelleschi is considered the seminal
figure. By 1400 there emerged an interest in humanitas which
contrasted with the formalism of the medieval period, but initially this
new interest in Roman antiquity was restricted to a few scholars,
writers and philosophers; it did not at first influence the visual arts.
Apparently it was in this period (1402–1404) that Brunelleschi and his
Section of the dome
friend Donatello visited Rome to study the ancient Roman ruins.
Donatello, like Brunelleschi, had received his training in a goldsmith's
workshop, and had then worked in Ghiberti's studio. Although in
previous decades the writers and philosophers had discussed the glories of ancient Rome, it seems that
until Brunelleschi and Donatello made their journey, no-one had studied the physical fabric of these
ruins in any great detail. They gained inspiration too from ancient Roman authors, especially Vitruvius
whose De Architectura provided an intellectual framework for the standing structures still visible.
Commissions
Brunelleschi's first architectural commission was the Ospedale degli Innocenti (1419–ca.1445), or
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Foundling Hospital. Its long loggia would have been a rare sight
in the tight and curving streets of Florence, not to mention its
impressive arches, each about 8 meters high. The building was
dignified and sober; there were no displays of fine marble or
decorative inlays.[6] It was also the first building in Florence to
make clear reference—in its columns and capitals—to classical
antiquity.
Soon other commissions came, such as the Ridolfi Chapel in the
church of San Jacopo sopr'Arno, now lost, and the Barbadori
Chapel in Santa Trinita, also modified since its building. For both
Brunelleschi devised elements already used in the Ospedale degli
Innocenti, and which would also be used in the Pazzi Chapel and
the Sagrestia Vecchia. At the same time he was using such
smaller works as a sort of feasibility study for his most famous
work, the dome of the Cathedral of Florence.
Nave of the Santo Spirito, 1441–1481
Florence Cathedral
Santa Maria del Fiore was the new cathedral of the city, and by
1418 the dome had yet to be defined. When the building was
designed in the previous century, no one had any idea about how
such a dome was to be built, given that it was to be even larger
than the Pantheon's dome in Rome and that no dome of that size
Chapel of the Pazzi family, one of his
had been built since antiquity. Because buttresses were forbidden
last works
by the city fathers, and because it was impossible to obtain
rafters for scaffolding long and strong enough (and in sufficient
quantity) for the task, it was unclear how a dome of that size could be constructed without it collapsing
under its own weight in the process. Also, the stresses of compression were not clearly understood at the
time, and the mortars used in the period would only set after several days, keeping the strain on the
scaffolding for a very long time.[7]
In 1418, the Arte della Lana, the wool merchants' guild, held a competition to solve the problem. The
two main competitors were Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, with Brunelleschi winning and receiving the
commission. The competition consisted of the great architects attempting to stand an egg upright on a
piece of marble. None could do it but Brunelleschi, who, according to Vasari:[8] "... giving one end a
blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand upright ...The architects protested that they could have
done the same; but Filippo answered, laughing, that they could have made the dome, if they had seen his
design." (This solution was also attributed to Columbus; see Egg of Columbus.)
The dome, the lantern (built 1446–ca.1461) and the exedra (built 1439-1445) would occupy most of
Brunelleschi’s life.[9] Brunelleschi's success can be attributed to no small degree to his technical and
mathematical genius.[10] Brunelleschi used more than 4 million bricks in the construction of the dome.
He invented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry needed for the dome, a task no doubt
inspired by republication of Vitruvius' De Architectura, which describes Roman machines used in the
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first century AD to build large structures such as the Pantheon
and the Baths of Diocletian, structures still standing which he
would have seen for himself. He also issued one of the first
patents for the hoist in an attempt to prevent others from reusing
his idea. Brunelleschi was granted the first modern patent for his
invention of a river transport vessel.[11]
Brunelleschi kept his workers up in the building during their
breaks and brought food and diluted wine, similar to that given
to pregnant women at the time, up to them. He felt the trip up
and down the hundreds of stairs would exhaust them and reduce
their productivity.[12]
Other work
Brunelleschi's interests extended to mathematics and engineering
and the study of ancient monuments. He invented hydraulic
machinery and elaborate clockwork, none of which survives.
Brunelleschi also designed fortifications used by Florence in its
Sculpture of Brunelleschi looking at
military struggles against Pisa and Siena. In 1424, he was
his cathedral dome
working in Lastra a Signa, a village protecting the route to Pisa,
and in 1431 in the south of Italy on the walls of the village of
Staggia. These walls are still preserved, but whether they are specifically by Brunelleschi is uncertain.
He also was active briefly in the world of shipmaking, when, in 1427, he built an enormous ship named
Il Badalone to transport marble to Florence from Pisa up the Arno River. The ship sank on its maiden
voyage, along with a sizable chunk of Brunelleschi's personal fortune. [13] Besides his accomplishments
in architecture, Brunelleschi is also credited with inventing one-point linear perspective which
revolutionized painting and paved the way for naturalistic styles to develop as the Renaissance digressed
from the stylized figures of medieval art. In addition, he was somewhat involved in urban planning: he
strategically positioned several of his buildings in relation to the nearby squares and streets for
"maximum visibility". For example, demolitions in front of San Lorenzo were approved in 1433 in order
to create a piazza facing the church. At Santo Spirito, he suggested that the façade be turned either
towards the Arno so travelers would see it, or to the north, to face a large, prospective piazza.
Invention of linear perspective
Brunelleschi is famous for two panel paintings illustrating geometric optical linear perspective made in
the early 1400s. His biographer, Antonio Manetti, described this famous experiment in which
Brunelleschi painted two panels: the first being the Florentine Baptistery as viewed frontally from the
western portal of the unfinished cathedral, the other one is the Palazzo Vecchio seen obliquely from its
northwest corner. These were not, however, the first paintings with accurate linear perspective, which
may be attributed to Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Annunciation, 1344).
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The first Baptistery panel was constructed with a hole drilled
through the centric vanishing point. Curiously, Brunelleschi
intended that it only be observed by the viewer facing the
Baptistery, looking through the hole in the panel, from the
unpainted backside. As a mirror was moved into and out of view,
the observer saw the striking similarity between the actual view
of the Baptistery, and the reflected view of the painted Baptistery
image. Brunelleschi wanted his new perspective "realism" to be
tested not by comparing the painted image to the actual
Baptistery but to its reflection in a mirror according to the
diagram of Brunelleschi's experiment
Euclidean laws of geometric optics. This feat showed artists
vividly how they might paint their images, not merely as flat
two-dimensional shapes, but looking more like three-dimensional structures just as mirrors reflect them.
Unfortunately, both panels have since been lost.[14]
Around this time linear perspective, as a novel artistic tool, spread not only in Italy but throughout
Western Europe. It quickly became, and remains, standard studio practice.
Theatrical machinery
Brunelleschi also designed machinery for use in churches during
theatrical religious performances that re-enacted Biblical miracle
stories. Contrivances were created by which characters and
angels were made to fly through the air in the midst of
spectacular explosions of light and fireworks. These events took
place during state and ecclesiastical visits. It is not known for
certain how many of these Brunelleschi designed, but at least
one, for the church of San Felice, is confirmed in the records.[4]
Death
Brunelleschi's tomb
Brunelleschi's body lies in the crypt of the Cathedral of Florence.
As explained by Antonio Manetti, who knew Brunelleschi and who wrote his biography, Brunelleschi
"was granted such honors as to be buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, and with a marble
bust, which they say was carved from life, and placed there in perpetual memory with such a splendid
epitaph."[15] Inside the cathedral entrance is this epitaph: "Both the magnificent dome of this famous
church and many other devices invented by Filippo the architect, bear witness to his superb skill.
Therefore, in tribute to his exceptional talents, a grateful country that will always remember buries him
here in the soil below."
Principal works
The principal buildings and works designed by Brunelleschi or which included his involvement:
Dome of the Cathedral of Florence, (1419–1436)
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Ospedale degli Innocenti, (1419–ca.1445)
Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze, (1419–1480s)
Meeting Hall of the Palazzo di Parte Guelfa, (1420s–1445)
Sagrestia Vecchia, or Old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, (1421–1440)
Santa Maria degli Angeli: unfinished, (begun 1434)
The lantern of the Florence Cathedral, (1436–ca.1450)
The exedrae of the Florence Cathedral, (1439–1445)
Santo Spirito di Firenze, (1441–1481)
Pazzi Chapel, (1441–1460s)
See also
Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli
References
1. ^ Walker, Paul Robert (2003). The Feud That
6. ^ Klotz, Heinrich (1990). Filippo Brunelleschi:
Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and
the Early Works and the Medieval Tradition.
Ghiberti Changed the Art World. HarperCollins.
Translated by Hugh Keith. London: Academy
p. 5. ISBN 0-380-97787-7.
Editions. ISBN 0-85670-986-7.
2. ^ "English Writers" Page 1, 1891
7. ^ King, Ross (2001). Brunelleschi's Dome: The
(http://www.mocavo.com/English-Writers-
Story of the great Cathedral of Florence. New
an-Attempt-Towards-a-History-of-English-
York: Penguin. ISBN 0-8027-1366-1.
Literature-Volume-7-4/107373/20)
3. ^ For an English version of Vasari's description
8. ^ From Lives of the Most Eminent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects, published 1500.
of the life and work of Brunelleschi, see:
Quoted from 'Italian Renaissance', Martin Roberts
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vasari
for Longman, 1992
/vasari5.htm
4. ^
ab
Battisti, Eugenio (1981). Filippo
Brunelleschi. New York: Rizzoli.
ISBN 0-8478-5015-3.
5. ^ Walker, Paul Robert (2002). The Feud that
9. ^ Saalman, Howard (1980). Filippo Brunelleschi:
The Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore. London: A.
Zwemmer. ISBN 0-302-02784-X.
10. ^ Prager, Frank (1970). Brunelleschi: Studies of
his Technology and Inventions
Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and
(https://books.google.com
Ghiberti Changed the Art World. New York:
/books?id=nfnDAgAAQBAJ&
William Morrow. ISBN 0-380-97787-7.
printsec=frontcover). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
ISBN 0-262-16031-5.
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11. ^ The origins of the industrial property right. See:
14. ^ For proposed reconstructions of Brunelleschi's
http://www.european-patent-office.org/wbt/pi-
demonstration, see Edgerton, Samuel Y. (2009).
tour/tour.php Step 3.
The Mirror, the Window & the Telescope: How
12. ^ "Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance"
Renaissance Linear Perspective Changed Our
(http://www.pbs.org/empires/medici/). February
Vision of the Universe. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
18, 2004. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/empires
University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-4758-7. And
/medici/. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
István Orosz, http://www.gallery-diabolus.com
13. ^ Brunelleschi's Monster Patent: Il Badalone
(http://www.cpaglobal.com/newlegalreview
/widgets/notes_quotes/more/2002
/brunelleschis_monster_patent_il_badalone)
/gallery/artist.php?image=1612&id=utisz&
page=214
15. ^ Manetti, Antonio (1970). The Life of
Brunelleschi. English translation of the Italian
text by Catherine Enggass. University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press.
ISBN 0-271-00075-9.
Further reading
Argan, Giulio Carlo; Robb, Nesca A (1946). "The Architecture of Brunelleschi and the Origins of
Perspective Theory in the Fifteenth Century". J. Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 9: 96–121.
doi:10.2307/750311 (https://dx.doi.org/10.2307%2F750311). JSTOR 750311
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/750311).
Fanelli, Giovanni (2004). Brunelleschi’s Cupola: Past and Present of an Architectural
Masterpiece. Florence: Mandragora.
Heydenreich, Ludwig H. (1996). Architecture in Italy, 1400-1500. New Haven/London: Yale
University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06467-4.
Hyman, Isabelle (1974). Brunelleschi in perspective. Prentice-Hall.
Kemp, Martin (1978). "Science, Non-science and Nonsense: The Interpretation of Brunelleschi's
Perspective". Art History 1 (2): 134–161.
Prager, F. D. (1950). "Brunelleschi's Inventions and the 'Renewal of Roman Masonry Work' ".
Osiris 9: 457–554. doi:10.1086/368537 (https://dx.doi.org/10.1086%2F368537).
Millon, Henry A.; Lampugnani, Vittorio Magnago, eds. (1994). The Renaissance from
Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: the Representation of Architecture. London: Thames and Hudson.
Trachtenberg, Marvin (1988). What Brunelleschi Saw: Monument and Site at the Palazzo Vecchio
in Florence. New York.
King, Ross (2000). Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
(https://books.google.com/books?id=JfcMAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover). New York: Walker.
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ISBN 0-8027-1366-1.
Devémy, Jean-François (2013). Sur les traces de Filippo Brunelleschi, l'invention de la coupole de
Santa Maria del Fiore à Florence. Suresnes: Les Editions du Net. ISBN 978-2-312-01329-9. (in
line presentation (http://coupoledebrunellesch.wix.com/santamariadelfiore))
Saalman, Howard (1993). Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings (https://books.google.com
/books?id=sIQAtNlm2zwC&printsec=frontcover). Penn State Press.
Vereycken, Karel, "The Secrets of the Florentine Dome" (http://schillerinstitute.org
/educ/pedagogy/2013/vereycken-dome-1.html), Schiller Institute, 2013. (Translation from the
French, "Les secrets du dôme de Florence" (http://www.solidariteetprogres.org/documentsde-fond-7/culture/les-secrets-du-dome-de-florence), la revue Fusion, n° 96, Mai, Juin 2003)
"The Great Cathedral Mystery" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/great-cathedralmystery.html), PBS Nova TV documentary, February 12, 2014
External links
Media related to Filippo Brunelleschi at Wikimedia
Commons
Free audio guide of Brunelleschi's Dome
Wikisource has the text of
the 1911 Encyclopædia
Britannica article
Brunelleschi, Filippo.
(http://www.italyguides.it/us/florence
/the_dome_of_brunelleschi.htm)
O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Filippo Brunelleschi" (http://www-history.mcs.standrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Brunelleschi.html), MacTutor History of Mathematics archive,
University of St Andrews.
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Filippo Brunelleschi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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