The Dome Of Florence : The Influence Of The Renaissance

The Renaissance occurred in Europe between 1400 and 1600. This event began in Italy during the Medieval period and then expanded to the rest of Europe, marking the start of the Modern age. The Renaissance began in Florence Italy in the 14th century. It was a cultural movement that had an enormous impact in Europe during the early modern period. The Renaissance’s influenced politics, science, literature, art, philosophy, religion, music, and other aspects. Around the 13th century in Italy started the Renaissance’s art influence. Leonardo da Vinci, was known as the "Renaissance man," because of his art masterpieces and his studies in other fields during this time. Italy wasn’t a political concept in the

From the 14th century to the 17th century the Renaissance took place and was consider the cultural bridge that connect the middle ages to modern history. During this time many spectacular things took place. Artwork was created that looked as though it were from the heavens. Sculptures were generated that looked as an angel had sculpted the masterpiece. The architecture that took place looked as though it were created from the 19th century. Many architects, artist, and sculptures were present during the Renaissance, but there was one person that stood out the most. He all of the abilities that three men combined did not have and his name was Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. Michelangelo has many painting that our still around today,

The Renaissance was a time of change. It began in Italy during the 14th century, and spread throughout the North. People all over Europe were affected, for the better and for the worse. Some people finally had a chance to

The Renaissance was from the late fourteenth century to the late sixteenth century.The word Renaissance means ‘rebirth’ in French. In this period of the arts, the paintings dramatically improved. The individuals changed from flat two-dimensional people to three-dimensional, life-like figures. During the Renaissance, there were many artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Jan van Eyck.

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.

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.

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.

In my studies, I decided to research Brunelleschi’s Dome in Florence, Italy, its beginning and inspiration, and how it was constructed. I was amazed by the building of this structure and how the idea of such a structure came about. It all started in 1418 when the Florentine Fathers noticed that their Cathedral had been an open to the sky throughout its existence. They decided to cover this big hole but had no idea how to do it. They were inspired by the Parthenon and its infrastructure, and wanted to build a dome to represent their power and spiritual aspiration. They didn’t know if their cathedral could hold the weight of a dome (since the Parthenon was made of concrete), and it it would have to have major support. None of them knew where to start, so they had a contest to see who could come up with the best plan and idea to execute

Brunelleschi's design of the dome for Florence's cathedral is one of the most impressive ways to build a dome, the technology at this point of the history, could make seem the building as something impossible to do, but the start motivation was Florence people´s creativity and their neighbors competitiveness.

As earlier stated, Filippo's took inspiration from his trip to Rome in order to design his ideal Dome, more specifically in fact he took motivation from the magnificent dome of the Pantheon in Rome for solutions. Pantheon’s dome consisted of a single shell of concrete the formula which had long been ignored. The dome needed his engineering skills as well as his vision; Filippo invented and patented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry required for the dome, the cathedral dome still dominates the sky line of Florence, a lasting vision of his greatest work.

Without his dome structure we would have struggled to build big and famous buildings in todays society including the Dome of Florence cathedral. The dome structure was different to other buildings during the Renaissance, the huge octagonal shape proved daunting to architects and engineers because they had seen nothing like it before. Some Italian architects were familiar with the dome shape as used on the Pantheon in Rome but that was built with concrete and they had lost the recipe for concrete in the dark ages. Brunelleschi came up with a solution though, there were two domes. The inner dome was made of sandstone and marble, then the outer dome was made with brick and mortar, each brick being fired to be perfectly fitted for the shape. The Duomo was a huge success and Brunelleschi was dubbed the chief architect affiliated with the Renaissance. The architecture that took place in the Renaissance period densely affected modern day construction and

Filippo Brunelleschi built the dome of brick to cover the opening built in the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. His motivation was to do something that no one could. He was also motivated by the rejection by the city officials (Nova). He had entered a competition for the casting of the doors of the Baptistery of Florence. He was beaten out and left Florence. He left Florence and came back when he was ready to take on another challenge. The challenge of building a dome that should not have been built with the technology of the time or knowledge.

Wisely, the city fathers held a competition that promised both fame and riches to the man with a plan to accomplish this vast feat. Many flocked into Florence promising different means in which to build this dome including a man named Filippo Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi proposed a dual

The renaissance or “rebirth” was a cultural awakening which spanned from the fourteenth to sixteenth century. A growing interest in humanist traits and classical ideas heavily influenced the art during the renaissance. A growing community of artists provided much needed competition for their profession. The renaissance introduced many different and modern ideas but also remained obedient to classical belief. The unique art of the renaissance spread throughout Europe. Northern European art differed tremendously from Italian art.