Filippo Brunelleschi

1
Filippo Brunelleschi

• K.J. Benoy

2
A Renaissance Man

• Trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, Brunelleschi
  became an accomplished artist and architect.
• His inventiveness still amaze artists, architects
  and engineers today.

3
His Loss -- Posteritys Gain

• The defining moment in Brunelleschis life came
  when he lost a competition to create doors for
  Florences cathedral.
• The test was to create a low relief panel,
  showing Abrahams sacrifice of Isaac.
• The panel was to depict the moment of Gods
  intervention.

4
His Loss -- Posteritys Gain

• Lorenzo Ghiberti, who won the 1401 contest, noted
  that there were seven competitors.
• Only Brunelleschi and Ghibertis panels survive.
• Ghiberti devoted 49 years of his life to carving
  two sets of doors for the Baptistry. His memory
  is immortalized by this achievement, but he is
  known for nothing more.

5
Inventing Perspective

• Creating realistic looking 3 dimensional images
  on a flat surface has challenged artists since
  paint was first applied to cave walls.
• Brunelleschi is often given credit for being the
  first person to create a workable mathematical
  formula to use in doing so.

6
Inventing Perspective

• Medieval painters noted receding lines of
  architectural features, but couldnt make
  mathematical sense of them.
• The placement of figures within architecture was
  particularly perplexing.

7
Perspective

• Brunelleschis discovery is linked to his
  architectural work.
• Presenting realistic images of what his final
  work would look like helped him win contracts.

8
The Peep-Show Demonstration

• Brunelleschi demonstrated his idea dramatically
  by creating a painted panel showing Florences
  Baptistry from the Cathedral.
• In the center is a hole to look through.
• The viewer faces the Baptistry and looks at it.
• Then he holds up the panel in front of his face
  and peers through the hole in the panel at a
  mirror.
• The two views are indistinguishable

9
The Peep-Show Experiment

• His biographer noted the method, saying that he
• had made a hole in the panel on which there
  was this painting ... which hole was as small as
  a lentil on the painting side of the panel, and
  on the back it opened pyramidally, like a woman's
  straw hat, to the size of a ducat or a little
  more. And he wished the eye to be placed at the
  back, where it was large, by whoever had it to
  see, with the one hand bringing it close to the
  eye, and with the other holding a mirror
  opposite, so that there the painting came to be
  reflected back ... which on being seen, ... it
  seemed as if the real thing was seen I have had
  the painting in my hand and have seen it many
  times in these days, so I can give testimony.
  (Trans. by White, 1968, pp. 114-17)

10
The Peep-Show Demonstration
11
The Peep-Show Demonstration

• Brunelleschi noted that a horizon line and a
  central vanishing point defined everything in the
  image.

12
Brunelleschis Architecture

• He eagerly sought novel solutions to old and new
  problems.
• He did not feel bound by traditional ideas or
  methods.
• He rejected the Gothic notion of heavenly scale
  and sought to build a new, human, architecture.

13
The Pazzi Chapel

• A clear example of this human scale is found in a
  small chapel at Santa Croce in Florence.
• Here, he employs the geometric forms of circles,
  spheres, squares and cubes to perfection

14
The Pazzi Chapel

• Man is intended to fit harmoniously within its
  scale .
• In its simplicity it also returns to Roman
  models.
• Round arches
• Barrel vaults
• A defining dome.

15
The Pazzi Chapel
16
San Lorenzo

• The simple geometry of his Pazzi Chapel is also
  present in larger works.
• San Lorenzo is his interpretation of a large
  basilica.

17
San Lorenzo
18
The Duomo

• Brunelleschis crowning achievement was not even
  a complete structure.
• Rather, it was the completion of a Medieval
  building begun by builders incapable of finishing
  it.
• At Florences heart lies Sta. Maria del Fiore,
  whose baptistry features prominently in
  Brunelleschis discovery of perspective.
• Here was a great church with an enormous void at
  its crossing an opening so large it seemed
  impossible to cover it.

19
The Duomo

• With typical Florentine self-assurance, the
  building was constructed prior to a solution
  being found.
• In 1418 Brunelleschi and Ghiberti once again
  competed with eachother.
• This time Brunelleschi won.

20
The Duomo

• The difficulty was how to place a dome over an
  octogon.
• The span was massive, making centering very
  difficult.
• The only engineering solutions suggested at the
  time involve extreme solutions like building an
  interior tower or filling the church interior
  temporarily with dirt.

21
The Duomo

• Brunelleschi won the competition though he
  refused to say how he would solve the problem
  merely that he knew how to do so.
• This involved new engineering techniques and
  inventing all kinds of new construction equipment.

22
The Duomo

• The width of the octagonal base allowed space for
  a central dome to be constructed within it.
• To reduce weight a two shelled dome was built.
• The inner shell was of self-supporting
  herringboned brick

23
The Duomo

• The outer shell would resist weathering.
• The two shells were linked to each other by ribs
  and supports.
• No supporting scafolding was required in
  construction.

24
The Duomo

• The completed structure immortalized both
  Brunelleschi and the city of Florence.
• This was exactly what both intended.
• The Duomo is Florences defining monument

25
The Duomo
26
Finis