Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/31

 BRUNELLESCO

BRUNELLESCO

criticism ascribed to Brunellesco: "This is .a rustic pointed octagonal, clustered-arches. lie (hen braced hanging on the cross". Two of his perspectives it not only by means of the octagonal drum, pre- created a great sensation in Florence. Seventy viously agreed on, but also borrowed from the Bap- years later they are described at length by his first tistery, besides its lantern, the idea of a protective anonymous biographer. Masaccio learned perspec- roof, not an ordinary roof, but a second and lighter tive 'from Brunellesco and according to Vasari, dome. This novel concept of a dome made of two the architect's second biographer, it was also applied shells greatly relieved the weight of the structure, to intarsia. Brunellesco entered into competition gave to the exterior an agreeable rounded finish, with Ghiberti and other masters in 1401, "hen and in the space between the shells furnished room models for the reliefs of the second bronze- door of for ribbing, passageways, and stairs. In technical the Baptistery at Florence were called for. The or constructive skill the dome of St. Peter's marked designs of both are exhibited side by side in the no advance on the work of Brunellesco; it is superior National Museum at Florence. We may agree with only in formal beauty. The crowning lantern, a the verdict of the commission which awarded the statically important weight, adds sixteen metres to first prize to Ghiberti and the second to Brunellesco. the height of the dome which is ninety-one metres; Ghiberti's relief is noteworthy for its agreeable it is inadequate, however, to the lighting of the dignity, while that of Brunellesco looks restless and edifice. Brunellesco 's work remained, in its essential

laboured. Soon af- ter Brunellesco went to Rome and for many years explored its ancient ruins, alone and with Don- atello. The remains of the classic build- ings SO enraptured him that he decided to make architecture his lifework, instead of, as heretofore, an occasional occupa- tion. In the mean- time the much dis- cussed problem of the completion of th'- Duomo (Santa Maria del Fiore) of Florence seems to have awakened in him the ambition to attain iii tin- way undisputed suprem- acy in one of the plastic arts.

Architecture. — At the end of the thirteenth century Aroolfo di Cambio had begun the con- struction of Santa Maria del Fiore. sub-

Btantially a Gothic

cathedral, and car- ried it as far as the

dome whose span

1. 1 |. irty metres (one linn. lied and I hirt y-

eighl and one-half feet i. nearly equal to that of the Pantheon,

mil

7 \ ill

i IS i

ill

Chcrch of the Holy Spirit, Florenxe

features, a model for succeeding ages. The lantern was not completed until five years after the death of the master.

Inspired by classi- cal art, he executed other domical struc- tures and basilicas, in all of which the essential character- istics of the new style appear. For the sacristy of San Lor- enzo at Florence he built its polygonal dome, without a drum, on a square plan, by means of pendentives (pro- jecting spherical tri- angles). As a cen- tral feature for Santa

Maria degli Angeli in Florence, he de- signed a dome rest- ing on a substruc- ture, octagonal on the interior and six- teen-sided on the ex- terior. On a free- standing centralized plan he built a still more charming structure, the 1'azzi

Chapel. Over the middle portion of the rectangular hall a dome with radial ribbings is carried on arches and flank- ed on two Bides by

i t completion all contemporary barrel vaults. The square sanctuary rises on the long

architects. In 1117 a conference of experts failed to side of this rectangular hall and is covered with a

arrive al a solution. Brunellesco. who was present, dome. The corresponding square on the entrance side

did not fully declare himself, bul instead visited Home is also domed; he added to it an antique colonnade

again, manifestly for tie- purpose of coming forward covered in by a barrel vault, thus forming a loggia

with greater assurance. The following year (March, that extends the entire width of the building. The

the most noted architects took interior wall surface-, are decorated with Corinthian .id m the discussion relative to tin cathedra] pilasters. Thestraight entablature, the rounded win- dome Brunellesco with full confidence proposed to flows, the coffered ceiling, the medallions.complete on complete it without centering, since ii was impossible s small scale an ideal Renaissance edifice. It is to construct scaffolding for such a height \t tut probable that the cruciform and domical church he was regarded as a fool, bul later was actually of Badia di Fiesole was built from Brunei:

commissioned i" execute the work, with two other design. In all these works he treated antique

ociates. Whether to harmonize it with classical principles rather freely. In larger chvj

the pointed arches of the rest of the design or to his practical mind induced him to return to the

relieve the substructure of the greater thrust, Bru- basilica plan, In San Lorenzo, it is true, he found

nellesco built the dome not on spherical, but on the cruciform plan already fixed; he added, however,