8/10/07 - Architectural History - Filippo Brunelleschi 1376-1446

The destruction, vandalism and neglect of Roman architecture was prevalent and much lamented during the time of Gothic construction. In fifteenth century Italy it was thought that the past should be reconstructed and emulated, in order to overcome the ignorance and folly that had led to the downfall of Rome. This period was called the Renaissance - translated as "new birth". The Renaissance later spread to the rest of Europe.

Around 1300, art was virtually untouched by perspective or realism. A means of representing a lifelike picture was formulated in the Renaissance by Ducco. He developed the one-point-perspective system of drawing. Here space and structure is sound and true to life. Art went from ignorance to reason and rationality and turned to the antique (i.e. Roman). The artist, in a way, took on the role of architect by 'creating' columns and other Roman architecture around a reasoned space.

Brunelleschi was one individual who took disorder and made out of it order. He was born to a lawyer and was well educated. He was apprenticed in the guild of a goldsmith. He was therefore not trained as an architect, but he achieved architectural greatness. The architectural tradition of Rome had been lost, but was reborn again in the age of Brunelleschi.

The people of Florence wanted a cathedral with a dome that would outdo all Roman domes before it, that would be greater than all the cathedrals of their rival cities. Florence Cathedral was based on an octagonal structure with square nave bays, as it was thought that this was the architectural design used by the Romans. The cathedral became more and more difficult to complete as the construction became more ambitious, and soon it became a problem how they were going to construct such a grand and huge dome. A drum was built around the base of the dome, but the space was too vast and expensive to build over, and finally buttressing was not able to be built around the drum; another method was needed to support such a heavy structure.

A competition was set up to try and find someone to solve the problem. Finally, Brunelleschi came forward. He redefined the dome by creating a ring structure that became narrower concentric circles the higher up the dome they went. Bands around the outside forced weight into deadweight by focusing it into the round. It is possible that Brunelleschi saw the dome of the Pantheon in Rome, which does now have a keystone but a hole, and realised that the rigidity of the dome's structure held everything in place without the need for a keystone. Brunelleschi applied his knowledge to Florence Cathedral to build the dome. He made the job more difficult for himself by creating an octagonal dome which was pointed rather than round, and this created a large number of problems that took him twenty-six years to resolve.

The dome has eight ribs which are artificial, but it is not a Gothic building.

Brunelleschi had other architectural projects, such as the Foundling Hospital in Florence. His buildings hark back to Classical architecture, and they are very rational and simple in design and appearance. He revivified the clarity of Classical architecture because he knew a lot about it. The hospital displays many characteristics of Classical architecture: roundels, columns and arches are the main ones. The distance between each column in equal to the column's height; it is a building of squares. Because the arches also extended behind each of the columns, it was therefore necessary to leave a column's width between each column and the wall behind it.

The Church of San Lorenzo in Florence required Brunelleschi to design its sacristy. He built the whole sacristy in white and grey. Each column and arch space is twice as high as it is wide. This was necessary to achieve a complete circular arch, touching the wall in four areas like a circle inside a square. The building's proportions are a square by a square-and-a-half, and fits inside a cube and a half. It is a demonstration that Brunelleschi's architecture is very much within human reach, unlike the precepts of Gothic architecture.

Brunelleschi built the Pazzi Chapel. Again, it is white and grey in the interior. The grey parts of made of stone, and the white parts are painted. It is a completely geometric inner space. He used uniformity of forms; a formulaic method of building. The space is therefore measurable. The dome is also constructed as a circle inside a square, like in the Sacristy.

In the crypt of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi uses the same geometric formulae. He uses the Corinthian order, replicating Roman monoliths but resourcing the stone from the same place that the Romans had sourced theirs from in the original monoliths. Previous architects had simply taken the stone from those monoliths, and ended up ruining them. In the crypt there is an absolute simplicity of squares and round arches. Achieving such a high level of perfection is very difficult in real life, particularly considering that Brunelleschi was building on pre-existing foundations. The floor has been measured in squares, from west to east. Gothic architects did not want this level of certitude, but Brunelleschi did: he wanted tidiness and a complete resolution of structural issues.

Brunelleschi is credited for the first rendering of perspective in architecture (the "Ideal City" of Ducco), for the creation of the Duomo of Florence Cathedral and for reviving the Roman principles of architectural rationality.