Brunelleschi's Dome Essay

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

In the fifteenth-century, the evolution of patronage begin, since power, and money influenced the creation of great artworks. One hand it flourished the Italian architectural collections other hand, notable designers as Brunelleschi, and Donatello designed and experimented with their creations. For example, Brunelleschi creation for the Medici family, which known as the Dome of Florence Cathedral (Fig 12-12). As it has been mentioned in the book he was the founder of the dome and it was one of the Gothic inspired and cost effective creation from that time period. Artist Donatello also made a contribution in the art world in a fascinating way since his work was inspired by as it has been mentioned in the book by the classical forms which

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.

In 1418, the town fathers of Florence realized they had to face a major problem. Il Duomo, the cathedral that was built to best all others, was missing its roof. This cathedral had been constructed in 1296 to commemorate Florence’s new status as one of the most prosperous cities in Europe. The cathedral would serve as a symbol of this new Florence. The town fathers had a vision of a colossal dome that would rise to the heavens without support, pulling one’s attention upwards. The only obstacle was that the technology at the time could not accommodate a dome of the scale as planned, with a diameter of 180 feet. A competition was announced with the prize of 200 florins, which was more than a craftsman’s two year wage at the time.

Leading up to this project Brunelleschi had lead a life of discovery, invention, and art. He was a master of painting, wood carving, gold

The Florence cathedral was lacking an enclosed ceiling. A contest was held awarding 200 gold florins and eternal fame to the architect who could successfully design a beautiful domed ceiling. The ceiling had to be 150 feet across and start 180 feet in the air without collapsing. The dome needed to fit onto the octagonal walls already in place and the design also had to exclude the popular gothic styled flying buttresses used in Milan, Florence’s archenemy.

Filippo Brunelleschi was in many senses a modern day entrepreneur in the Middle Ages. He is the architect and innovator responsible for building the Santa Maria del Fiore, arguably the greatest dome ever built. In the years leading up to and during the construction of the dome, his life was surrounded by managerial aspects.

Michelangelo Buonarroti is a very well known artist from Italy and is know all over the world. He was more than just a painter he was a poet, sculptor, and architect. Michelangelo was born on March 6, 1475 to Francesca Neri and Leonardo di Buonarrota Simoni in Caprese, Italy. His family was in the banking business, he was born to the Florentine family of burgher nobility. Early in Michelangelo's life his mother became ill and he was places with a family of stonecutters. He loved going to a local church and watching the painters paint and drawing what he saw, that's where he grew his interest in painting. Michelangelo's friend from grammar school Francesco Granacci introduced him to a painter named Domenico Ghirlandaio.

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.

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

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

Once it was finished, the dome became a symbol of Florence, representing its accomplishment and their progression out of the Renaissance. The humanistic ideas such as people's accomplishment and use of science and technology, which where all incorporated to build the dome, which is why it is such a relevant example of the Renaissance. However, one could argue that because the duomo was built on a church, it could be depicted as religious, which does not support these ideas of humanism. Then again, even though it was constructed on a church it was filled with art from the Renaissance. The inside of the dome contains “intricately decorated marble floors, but the rest of the inside is fairly simple for an Italian church, this is perhaps because the fresco adorning the dome is one of the best in Italy” (duomo site).

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.

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