Religious and Architectural Sites of Florence Essay

Italy produced the most art, but this is not very surprising considering Italy ‘kicked off’ the Renaissance (Grendler). Italy also gave us many infamous masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. “Renaissance art sought to capture the experience of the individual and the beauty and mystery of the natural world” (Renaissance Art). Renaissance artists changed how paintings looked because the “painter was able to show men, women, and children in a full range of postures and poses, as well as their diverse emotional reactions and states” (History of…Rediscovery). The artists believed that “Not what man knows but what man feels, concerns art. All else is science” (Renaissance…Architecture). I feel as though this is a completely true statement that all artists and critics should know and understand; science and art should be separate because they are not the

During all of this Brunelleschi not only built the dome in the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral (what today is still the biggest dome in the world), but mechanical marvels of worker platforms and lifts that managed to carry workers and hundreds pounds of materials hundreds feet in the air over the course of 28 years with only a single death. This showed how Brunelleschi was a mastermind in architecture and how he revived it.

Many decades’ architects have failed to seal the enormous hole in the roof of the great Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore. In 1418, the city Fathers announced a contest for the idea dome design; a promise of gold and eternal fame was granted for anyone who is able to construct it. A goldsmith, Filippo Brunelleschi won the contest by proposing his design of “double dome” to the Fathers.

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.

a. St. Peters of Rome built in Vatican City was built in Italian renaissance style.

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

The High Renaissance in Italy, although short lived, was extremely important on the influences of future Italian art. During the High Renaissance the main focus on Florence, for the arts, shifted to Rome due to the power and wealth from the popes. Because of the move from Florence to Rome, the two most important factors of this time, Classicism and Christianity, were merged into one. “Italian ideas were also brought northward through trade and commerce into Europe, where they had a tremendous amount of influence on the artistic traditions there as well” (Benton & DiYanni, 2008).

Next, we have the Pantheon a wonderful temple in Rome which is now a church called Santa Maria ad Martyres. The Pantheon was built in 27-25 B.C. by magistrate, Marcus Agripa to commemorate the victory of Actium over Antony and Cleopatra. Unfoaryanty, the original temple burned down in 80 AD and it was restored between 193-211 by emperor, Septiums and Caracalla. Later, when Christianity replace paganism in Rome, the temple was give to Pope Boniface IV 608 AD. The Pantheon was the first to be Christianized in Rome. The Pantheon is 142 ft. wide and 142 ft. in height it is shaped as a sphere sitting on a cylinder. The place is resting in a solid ring wall while the outside is covered in cantilevered brick. The porch is made of 16 monolothic Corinituan

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

The result is the creation of the world’s first self-supporting dome. It consisted of an inner hemispherical dome within the cathedral’s octagonal dome, with a second ovoid brick dome placed on top held together like a drum by nine sandstone beams. This structure allowed the dome to be as light as possible by creating a hollow space, by using this approach and the inside skeletal structure each time the dome was being raised up or added to it was becoming stronger and locking itself into place. The Pantheon dome was a structure that Brunelleschi admired and studied in order to understand how it held itself up, but it had almost the exact opposite structure by having very thick walls. His innovative thinking and complex architectural design sets Brunelleschi years before his time. His works were ingenious master pieces that were a completely new way of

Most of the masterpieces on display were specifically designed to adorn the interior or exterior of the religious monuments that still stand on the museum's doorstep: the Baptistry of San Giovanni, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the "Duomo") and Giotto's Bell Tower. The Museo dell'Opera provides the ideal setting for the works of art made for these buildings, which today form a single group known as the "Great Museum of the Cathedral" (museum of Florence). Many great pieces of art reside within the walls of the Cathedral. In the museum, work by many famous names can be found. “Medieval and Renaissance statues and reliefs in marble, bronze, and silver of the greatest artists of the time: Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea Pisano, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Andrea del Verrocchio, Michelangelo Buonarroti.” (Museum of Florence). One very important art piece is that of Mary Magdalene by Donatello. “Donatello’s 15th-century statue of Mary Magdalene commands attention. The ravaged figure, with her gaunt features and imposing size of near two meters, is at once enthralling and repulsive. She is a Magdalene different from those most typically

At the beginning of the 15th century, the leaders of the city of Florence decided that it was time for them to solve a problem that they had been putting aside for decades. It was time for them to fill the hole in their massive cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore. The building of this cathedral began in 1296 but it wasn’t until 1418 when they started looking for the right architect for the job to build the dome. They just didn’t know how it could be done. Many architects came from all around Florence to present their ideas. Filippo Brunelleschi’s design ultimately won. Brunelleschi worked as a goldsmith apprentice as a boy and mastered many other aspects of art. He had just spent several years

Finding a solution to build an artistic roof that would fully cover the interior, and keep the outdoor elements from entering, instead of having a massive whole in their cathedrals was the motivation that led to Brunelleschi’s invention of the dome that is used on a few cathedrals in Florence.

With such support from the state and the Emperor, the church was given a massive financial support, which was invested in the building of the Basilicas. They were used to perform rituals such as worship, baptism, prayers, scripture reading, preaching and recognition of the dead and the after life. The liturgy of the early churches was very plain. They were build on a rectangular classical floor plan. The Basilica floor plan was simple; consisting of a narthex (the outside building short end), apse, transept, and aisle such formation gives the idea of building resembling to the cross. The early Christians were inspiration to represent such building to the cross. Once more this is part of the spiritual journey of Christianity. The other model was the central plan which would consist of a dome in the middle of the church. Were all the activities would take place. Like the worship and the baptismal ritual. This center plan was more common in the Eastern-Orthodox churches. This shows the heritage of Roman Christian art from the early ancestors such as the Greeks and the Middle East. A great example is the San Vitale in Ravenna which was an important Byzantine outpost in Italy. San Vitale was constructed under the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 547. This church has a domed central core which