Brunelleschi's Dome Essay

Florence announced a contest “for the ideal dome design” to their cathedral that had been

The motivation behind Brunelleschi’s Dome originated from the desire to show-off Florence, Europe’s financial and cultural wealth. Later, the large dome was added to display that the church was the most beautiful and best that was ever been built.

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the leading architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance and is best known for his work on the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence. Filippo was assigned the job of creating the dome of the cathedral of Florence. This work took a lot of his time and a good portion of his life and the challenge was enormous, no other dome that size has ever been built in that era. The dome didn't just become an architect problem, but also an engineering problem. They didn't have the type of tools we have today to get something like that built. Filippo also invented and patented the new hoisting machine for raising the masonry required for the dome (Mueller, T. 2014). You’ll see this on a lot of tall commercial

I chose, Brunelleschi's design of the dome for Florence's cathedral. What I found was fascinating. Not only did Brunelleschi build the largest masonry dome in the world, an achievement that still holds true today, many historians and engineers are still debating over how the dome was built.

Filippo Brunchelleschi, who was born on 1377, was one of the key figures that contributed to the renaissance architecture. This Italian architect is known for building the dome in the Santa Maria del Fiore. During his early years, Brunchelleschi was coached and trained as a gold smith and sculptor. Enrolled in the Arte della Seta, this silk merchant guild, which also include goldsmith, he was designated a master goldsmith. In his early architectural years, Filippo rediscovered the principles of linear perspective that was lost during the middle ages. All his work was displayed with two painted panels of the Florentine streets and building. With this principle in place, artists were able to use two-dimensional canvases to construct three-dimensional

In 1296 the town fathers of Florence had built a cathedral to showcase their place as one of the cultural and economic capitals of Europe. The one problem with this cathedral was that for over a century it was without a dome and so snow, wind, rain and sunshine poured into the cathedral all through the seasons. They decided that it was time to fix this issue and so issued a challenge and contest to create a dome that could stand unsupported and cover the cathedral. It would be the largest unsupported dome in the world. This challenge was taken up by a gold smith by the name of Filippo Brunelleschi.

Brunelleschi was aiming to achieve to build the world's best Dome. He invented his way to success as he solved one of the greatest architectural problems. He was a man with a great ambition and has left a great legacy that even after 600 years American and European architects will follow in his footsteps. His Dome still dominates the horizon of Florence today, as it remains as a long lasting legacy to a very great architect.

When Michelangelo told his father of this request and his wish to be apprenticed by the Ghirlandaio brothers, his father went into a rage. Nonetheless, Michelangelo ran away and became an apprentice at the home of Domenico Ghirlandaio at the age of thirteen. He became unsatisfied with the Ghirlandaio brother's teachings because he felt that he wasn't being taught how to paint. Thus, after only two years, left to apprentice under the influence of sculptor Bertoldo di Giovanni. While he was painting in the Medici gardens, Lorenzo de' Medici (also known as Lorenzo the Magnificent) himself saw Michelangelo hard at work, and invited him to come work

Giovanni Bellini was born in c.1430 in Venice, Italy. Giovanni, his brother Gentile, and sister Nickolosa came from a long line of Italian venetian painters. In his early days, Bellini worked with his brother Gentile in their father Jacopo’s house. There, they learned important skills and techniques from some of Jacopo's pupils. Bellini’s father helped bring the Italian Renaissance to Venice. A Paduan painter named Andrea Mantegna was one of the most important pupils because he later became Giovanni’s brother-in-law, and one of the great influences of his work. Around the 1470’s he began to use a new technique called oil painting instead of using the common style of tempera painting. He quickly mastered this and captured the human emotions

Filippo Brunelleschi, one of these skilled artists, built a revolutionary dome during the Renaissance; the unique structure was called the Dome of Florence. Although, this dome was not like any other building that would be made during this time, for domes were considered impossible to create. In fact, no one in that time period had ever thought of building a dome shaped building. The idea to build a dome came from the Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece period; structures like this were very common in that time period. This dome was built through advanced technique and agriculture. It brought many people together as the unique structure was built, for they wanted to watch the construction of the dome and a big advancement for the future.

It took me awhile to find the right article, but after some research, I found “Brunelleschi’s Dome” in National Geographic. The first question that I looked to answer was the motivation that led to the discovery of the dome. To paraphrase what I learned from the quoted article of National Geographic, there was a hole that was the sore sight of the cathedral in Florence. The name was “Santa Maria”. In order to cover up this eyesore, the leaders of the Catholic Church held a competition in which 200 gold florins were offered to the winner that could best cover up the hole. After listening to many contestants, the Church finally chose Filipo Brunelleschi. He was a young and irate genius, but he promised that he could build an inner and outer dome-and eventually he did. There were several questions that had to be asked; among them were how to cover the whole and what techniques to use so that the dome would not collapse on itself. It was not a task that was done in a day or even a decade. From the time that Brunelleschi was little, he had tinkered around with gears and gadgets. Because of this tinkering around and his learning from being a gold smith and studying architecture, he used his knowledge of the past and came up with the idea of an inner and outer dome. It was supported by solid brick at the base and hoop ring support at the top.

I found it fascinating that during the building of the dome, Brunelleschi masterfully created a 65 foot crane to hoist the materials needed, up to the staggering height of 180 feet. It was the first of it's kind. He didn't draw his design for record but the famous Leonardo DA Vinci did. Those sketches were used during the industrialized revolution to build better machines. Not until the industrial revolution did another crane such as Brunelleschi's exist.

Filippo Brunelleschi was an architect who created many great buildings. Some of those buildings include the Florence Cathedral and the Basilica di San Lorenzo, Firenze (The Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence). Donatello was a noted sculpture of the late Middle Ages leading into the early Renaissance. The Renaissance owes its beginning to the art created at the end of the Middle

An example of the Medici support to artists involves The Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. The dome of the chapel was built so large that no architect knew how to complete the rooftop structure and was a humiliating point in Florentine history. A contest to see who could develop a solution to complete the dome was won by a Florentine engineer named Brunelleschi, who felt he had found the solution. With the successful completion of the chapel, support from Cosimo de Medici and the holy consecration performed by the Pope, a great structure was once again a source of pride to the Florentines and the

During the first half of the Early Renaissance Brunelleschi’s architecture incorporated classical influences. In Brunelleschi’s building, he incorporated a longitudinal/ basilica plan and also created a flat ceiling to give it a more human scale. The building includes classical references like coffers and arcade, while also including arcaded columns, which form the side aisles and shallow side chapels. The building was also mathematically designed in a geometric form. The building of San Lorenzo was a starting point, which later evolved when other architects like Alberti came along.