BRUNELLESCO
BRUNELLESCO
criticism ascribed to Brunellesco: "This is .a rustic pointed octagonal, clustered-arches. lie (hen braced
hanging on the cross". Two of his perspectives it not only by means of the octagonal drum, pre-
created a great sensation in Florence. Seventy viously agreed on, but also borrowed from the Bap-
years later they are described at length by his first tistery, besides its lantern, the idea of a protective
anonymous biographer. Masaccio learned perspec- roof, not an ordinary roof, but a second and lighter
tive 'from Brunellesco and according to Vasari, dome. This novel concept of a dome made of two
the architect's second biographer, it was also applied shells greatly relieved the weight of the structure,
to intarsia. Brunellesco entered into competition gave to the exterior an agreeable rounded finish,
with Ghiberti and other masters in 1401, "hen and in the space between the shells furnished room
models for the reliefs of the second bronze- door of for ribbing, passageways, and stairs. In technical
the Baptistery at Florence were called for. The or constructive skill the dome of St. Peter's marked
designs of both are exhibited side by side in the no advance on the work of Brunellesco; it is superior
National Museum at Florence. We may agree with only in formal beauty. The crowning lantern, a
the verdict of the commission which awarded the statically important weight, adds sixteen metres to
first prize to Ghiberti and the second to Brunellesco. the height of the dome which is ninety-one metres;
Ghiberti's relief is noteworthy for its agreeable it is inadequate, however, to the lighting of the
dignity, while that of Brunellesco looks restless and edifice. Brunellesco 's work remained, in its essential
laboured. Soon af-
ter Brunellesco went
to Rome and for
many years explored
its ancient ruins,
alone and with Don-
atello. The remains
of the classic build-
ings SO enraptured
him that he decided
to make architecture
his lifework, instead
of, as heretofore, an
occasional occupa-
tion. In the mean-
time the much dis-
cussed problem of
the completion of
th'- Duomo (Santa
Maria del Fiore) of
Florence seems to
have awakened in
him the ambition to
attain iii tin- way
undisputed suprem-
acy in one of the
plastic arts.
Architecture. — At the end of the thirteenth century Aroolfo di Cambio had begun the con- struction of Santa Maria del Fiore. sub-
Btantially a Gothic
cathedral, and car- ried it as far as the
dome whose span
1. 1 |. irty metres (one linn. lied and I hirt y-
eighl and one-half feet i. nearly equal to that of the Pantheon,
mil
7 \
ill
i IS i
ill
Chcrch of the Holy Spirit, Florenxe
features, a model
for succeeding ages.
The lantern was not
completed until five
years after the death
of the master.
Inspired by classi- cal art , he executed other domical struc- tures and basilicas, in all of which the essential character- istics of the new style appear. For the sacristy of San Lor- enzo at Florence he built its polygonal dome, without a drum, on a square plan, by means of pendentives (pro- jecting spherical tri- angles). As a cen- tral feature for Santa
Maria degli Angeli in Florence, he de- signed a dome rest- ing on a substruc- ture, octagonal on the interior and six- teen-sided on the ex- terior. On a free- standing centralized plan he built a still more charming structure, the 1'azzi
Chapel. Over the middle portion of the rectangular hall a dome with radial ribbings is carried on arches and flank- ed on two Bides by
i t completion all contemporary barrel vaults. The square sanctuary rises on the long
architects. In 1117 a conference of experts failed to side of this rectangular hall and is covered with a
arrive al a solution. Brunellesco. who was present, dome. The corresponding square on the entrance side
did not fully declare himself, bul instead visited Home is also domed; he added to it an antique colonnade
again, manifestly for tie- purpose of coming forward covered in by a barrel vault, thus forming a loggia
with greater assurance. The following year (March, that extends the entire width of the building. The
the most noted architects took interior wall surface-, are decorated with Corinthian .id m the discussion relative to tin cathedra] pilasters. Thestraight entablature, the rounded win- dome Brunellesco with full confidence proposed to flows, the coffered ceiling, the medallions.complete on complete it without centering, since ii was impossible s small scale an ideal Renaissance edifice. It is to construct scaffolding for such a height \t tut probable that the cruciform and domical church he was regarded as a fool, bul later was actually of Badia di Fiesole was built from Brunei:
commissioned i" execute the work, with two other design. In all these works he treated antique
ociates. Whether to harmonize it with classical principles rather freely. In larger chvj
the pointed arches of the rest of the design or to his practical mind induced him to return to the
relieve the substructure of the greater thrust, Bru- basilica plan, In San Lorenzo, it is true, he found
nellesco built the dome not on spherical, but on the cruciform plan already fixed; he added, however,
