BRUNELLESCHI, FILIPPO

BRUNELLESCHI, Filippo: translation

(c. 1377-1446)

   Filippo Brunelleschi, traditionally considered the founder of early Renaissance architecture in Italy, trained as a goldsmith in Florence and gained an understanding of architecture while studying classical buildings in Rome. Many Renaissance architects were interested in antiquity, but Brunelleschi's desire to examine the proportions and engineering of Roman buildings with mathematical precision enabled him to more fully understand Roman structural innovations. In order to facilitate his more accurate system of measurement, Brunelleschi invented an optical device whereby he created a pinhole at the center of a painted image of the Baptistry of Florence and then angled a mirror toward the front of the image. By looking through the pinhole from the back of the painting, one could see the mirror reflection of the painting, and when the mirror was removed, the actual baptistery, identical in scale, would appear to the viewer. After this experiment was described by Brunelleschi's biographer and friend Antonio Manetti, in his Vita di Filippo Brunelleschi (c. 1480), one-point perspective came to be used by many early Renaissance sculptors and painters, including Donatello and Masaccio.

   Around 1407, Brunelleschi returned to Florence from Rome and received the very prestigious commission to complete the dome of the Florence Cathedral, a church dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore. This project had languished for more than 40 years because earlier architects did not know how to cover the massive crossing of the existing church with such a large dome. No dome this size had been built since antiquity, and because the knowledge of concrete, seen in the Pantheon dome, remained lost in the Renaissance, Brunelleschi designed a dome that featured the use of bricks to create an interior shell, while wood was used to build an outer shell.Brunelleschi's plan involved the construction of a tall drum covered by a double-shell dome featuring Gothic ribs and a Roman oculus window topped by a classical lantern. Since the 138-foot (42 meter) diameter was too large for any type of a centering device and too tall for any ground scaffolding, each layer of the dome was self-supporting and reinforced between the two shells with interior arches and Roman herringbone-patterned brickwork. The lantern was completed by Brunelleschi's student Michelozzo di Bartolommeo in 1461, and the Cathedral of Florence came to be called the "Duomo" because of its imposing silhouette. Brunelleschi's almost immediate fame rested on the ingenious solutions he proposed to the logistical challenges of such a monumental construction, and he parlayed that fame into a secondary career in theatrical machinery.

   Brunelleschi's subsequent buildings provide a more fully addressed aesthetic system that blends mathematical ratios with classical philosophy and Christian symbolism. In 1419, he was hired to complete the Ospedale degli Innocenti, or Foundling Hospital, in Florence, one of the first public orphanages built since antiquity.

   Civic buildings traditionally had a loggia, or open portico, across the front, and here Brunelleschi's loggia creates a classically harmonious design of nine round arches set in bay units of 10 braccia, or about 20 feet each unit. Because the diameter of each arch is equal to the depth of the porch and the height of each column, the effect is a perfect cube. A green-gray stone, called pietra serena, separates the Composite Corinthian columns and classical arches from the white wall background, while blue terracotta medallions featuring standing swaddled infants appear above each column. A clear relationship between all parts can be found in this building, which is a trait that became the hallmark of Renaissance design.

   Brunelleschi's churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito, both of which were conceived in the 1420s and completed after his death, also demonstrate a classical aesthetic as well as an interest in geometry, but his architectural philosophy is most fully realized in his small Pazzi Chapel, a freestanding building located next to the Gothic church of Santa Croce in Florence that was mainly built in the 1430s. The exterior of the chapel was constructed with an arched, tripartite portico that might have been completed after Brunelleschi's death. The design recalls the Arch of Constantine (built in AD 312-315 to commemorate Constantine's victory over Maxentius) and was subsequently used as a general façade design in the Renaissance to symbolize the triumph of Christianity. The portico ceiling of the Pazzi Chapel, decorated with classicizing shells and coffers, directs the visitor into a spare room articulated with wall molding and marble floor patterning that divides the rectangular room into ratios of 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 from the crossing square, with an altar square across from the entrance. These divisions continue with explicit number symbolism and religious meaning. For example, the four corner pendentives feature medallions of the four Evangelists, and the 12 wall pilasters divide the room into vertical sections featuring medallions of the 12 apostles located just beneath the entablature. This symbolism is further reinforced in the 12 ribs of the small umbrella dome above the crossing square.

   In these ways, the Pazzi Chapel most fully and clearly realized the Renaissance reverence for the circle, the triangle, and the square, as well as the meaning of these shapes and their numerical equivalents in both classical philosophy and Christian symbolism. Thus, while the dome of the Florence Cathedral displays Brunelleschi's understanding of Roman structural innovations, the Pazzi Chapel, in its simple harmony, best represents Brunelleschi's classical aesthetic.

Brunelleschi, Filippo: translation

(1377-1446)

   Considered the pioneer of Early Renaissance architecture. The son of a Florentine notary and diplomat, Brunelleschi received a humanistic education. He was trained as a goldsmith, and turned to architecture after losing to Lorenzo Ghiberti the competition for the east doors of the Baptistery of Florence (1401). His greatest achievement is the dome of the Cathedral of Florence. Arnolfo di Cambio and Francesco Talenti had built the cathedral in the 14th century, save for the octagonal dome. The opening they left above the crossing (where the transept and nave cross) spanned 140 feet and no architect of the period possessed the engineering skills to cover such a large expanse. We know from Giorgio Vasari that Brunelleschi traveled to Rome with

   Donatello to study the Roman remains, and there he took precise measurements of ancient buildings. The knowledge he gained facilitated his successful design for the dome. A dome of such large proportions would have collapsed under its own weight had it not been for Brunelleschi's innovative double-shelled construction, the first of its kind. To facilitate the task of building it, Brunelleschi devised a series of mechanical cranes and hoisting machines, and he even arranged for a canteen at dome level for laborers to take their meals without leaving the worksite.

   In 1419-1424, Brunelleschi was occupied with the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the Florentine foundling hospital built with funding from the Guild of Silk Merchants and Goldsmiths to which the architect belonged, no doubt a factor in his obtaining the commission.Like the cathedral dome, the hospital was inspired by ancient Roman architecture. The loggia's round arches, the columns that support them, its capitals, and the corbels that provide added support, all stem from Roman examples. So does the sober design, the rhythm established by the constant repetition of forms, and the emphasis on balance and symmetry. Brunelleschi also built two large churches in Florence: Santo Spirito (beg. 1436) and San Lorenzo (beg. 1421). In designing these structures, he rejected the Italo-Gothic style employed by his predecessors, instead opting for a classicized vocabulary dependent on ancient Roman prototypes. He also introduced a rational mathematical system of proportions, later adopted by other Renaissance architects, including Leon Battista Alberti.

   While working on San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi completed the Old Sacristy, the funerary chapel of Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici attached to the church's left transept. The Pazzi Chapel (1433-1461), the Chapter House of Santa Croce, also by Brunelleschi (completed by his pupils after his death), is a more elaborate version of the Medician structure. The plans for these two spaces are based on simple quadrangular and circular forms that emphasize balance, symmetry, harmony, and proportions. In 1434-1437, Brunelleschi worked on the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the seat of the Camaldolite Order in Florence and the earliest central plan church to be built in the 15th century. The church was modified in the 1930s, though extant plans and elevations reveal Brunelleschi's intentions — to create a structure dependent on the number eight. The result of this Pythagorean approach was an interior composed of an octagonal nave capped by an octagonal dome supported by a drum that sits on eight piers. The nave is surrounded by eight chapels, one used as the entrance to the church, six dedicated to the apostles, and the chapel facing the entrance assigned to the Virgin Mary.

   Brunelleschi died in 1446. Though he worked primarily in Florence, his influence was farreaching, mainly thanks to his follower Michelozzo who worked in Venice, Pistoia, Montepulciano, Milan, and even Dalmatia, spreading Brunelleschi's ideas. By rejecting the French Gothic style in favor of a classicized vocabulary and by introducing a new, rational principle of proportions based on Pythagorean thinking, Brunelleschi single-handedly altered the course of architecture in Italy and abroad. He also can be credited with being among the first to intellectualize the field of architecture, which up to that point had been viewed exclusively as no more than a manual labor.

Brunelleschi, Filippo: translation

(1377-1446)

   Florentine artist, initially active as a sculptor but known principally as the creator of the early Italian Renaissance architectural style. According to a story told by two later Renaissance authors, after he was defeated by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1401 in a competition for design of new bronze doors for the Florentine baptistery, he and his friend the sculptor Donatello travelled to Rome and studied the monuments of ancient Rome. This study enabled Brunelleschi to define the mathematical principles and proportions on which the ancient classical style was based.Whether this story is literally true or not, he seems to have been the first person to understand the mathematical principles of linear perspective.

   Back in Florence by 1417, Brunelleschi again competed against Ghiberti for the daunting task of designing the huge dome called for by the original architect of the cathedral but left unbuilt because no one could contrive a design for such a gigantic dome. This time Brunelleschi won the competition, largely because in addition to his familiarity with ancient Roman architecture, he had become a skilled mathematician and structural engineer. His dome won because of an ingenious design that not only called for a lighter, less stress-intensive structure but also would be much cheaper and faster to build. This success led the wealthy Medici family to choose him to design the sacristy (the family's burial chapel) of the church of San Lorenzo and then to rebuild the entire church. Though the new structure is reminiscent of the traditional Tuscan Romanesque style, it reflected classical architectural practice in its elegant and harmonious proportions. On a much smaller scale, strongly redolent of elements drawn from Roman architecture and yet representing a clearly modern design, was the Pazzi Chapel, commissioned by another wealthy Florentine family. Brunelleschi's subsequent works included the churches of Santo Spirito and Santa Maria degli Angeli. The latter was the earliest domed, central-plan church of the Renaissance. The engineering skills that Brunelleschi applied to designing the cathedral dome were also put to use in improving the design of the organ in the cathedral, designing a new type of river boat, designing an aqueduct, building stage machinery, and designing fortifications.