FILIPPO

BRUNELLESCHI INT470 History 1

Fatma Elzahraa Mohamed - 201210448 Dr. Seif Khiati

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Index:

Introduction

History (his life and his family)

Filippo Brunelleschi as an architect

Key projects (with details)

Other works

Sculptor

The reinvevention of linear perspective

Theater machinery

Important Quates

Death

Conclusion

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Introduction:

Filippo Brunelleschi was a designer from Italy

and an important figure in architecture, he is known to

be the first modern engineer, organizer and only

construction supervisor. He is also one of the founding

fathers of the Renaissance. Generally, he’s well known

for creating method for linear viewpoint for building

and in art, constructing dome of the famous Florence

Cathedral. By greatly depending on geometry and

mirror, to "support Christian spiritual reality", his construction of linear viewpoint

oversaw graphic representation of the space until late 19th. It also had the deepest and

pretty unexpected influence on the growth of modern science. Many of his

accomplishments include other works of architecture, sculpture, math, engineering, and

ship design. His main projects are institute in Florence, Italy and have actually survived

until now. Sadly, his original two linear viewpoint panels were missing.

Hisory:

Brunelleschi was born in Florence, Italy. There are fiw information about his

early life, his father Brunellesco di Lippo, a lawyer, and Giuliana Spini was his mom.

Filippo had two siblings and he was the middle one. He was literary and mathematically

educated that planned to allow him to trail his father’s path, by being a civil servant.

Being artistically motivated, he registered in the Arte della Seta, which is the silk

merchants' Guild, that included also metalworkers, bronze workers, and goldsmiths. In

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1398 he was a proffessional goldsmith. Therefore, this wasn’t by luck because his first

significant building contract, was the Ospedale degli Innocenti, that was fromthe

association he belonged to.

He took place in a design competition to construct a design for the new set of

bronze doors for Florence Baptistery in 1401. There were Seven competitors and to each

one he had a gold-plated bronze panel, showing the Sacrifice of Isaac. Only two designs

have survived Brunelleschi’s entry and Lorenzo Ghiberti.

As an architect:

Brunelleschi is thought to be an important person of the Renaissance. Not much

biographical info about Brunelleschi's life is there showing his shift from a goldsmith to

an architect. By the 1400 there appeared an attention in humanitas, which was in the way

with the formalism of the medieval period, but originally this new interest in Roman

ancient times limited to a small number of scholars, writers and philosophers; and it didnt

effect the visual arts at first.

Maybe he was just inspired by his environments, ever since it was between 1402-

1404 that he with his friend and sculptor Donatello supposedly went to Rome for

studying ancient ruins.

Donatello, was skilled to be a goldsmith. After his training, he was working in

Lorenzo Ghiberti’s workshop. In the past, philosophers and writers talked about grandeur

and weakening of ancient Rome, however it appears that up till Brunelleschi and

Donatello complete the trip, no one had considered the physical existence of Rome's

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ruins in detail. Though Donatello stayed a sculptor, the journey looks to have had a deep

outcome on Brunelleschi, and he changed firmly and lastingly to architecture in the

decade after that.

Key Projects:

The first architecture work for Brunelleschi was Ospedale degli Innocenti from 1419

to1445, or Foundling Hospital. The long terrace was a rare view in the streets of Florence, as

well as its extraordinary arches, the height of each arch is 8 meters. The structure was

honorable and clear-headed; no demonstrations of fine decorative or marble tiles. Also, this

building was the first to have vibrant position in its pillars and capitals to traditional antiquity

in Florence

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His design was based on many types of architecture such as Classical Roman,

Italian Romanesque and late Gothic . The loggia was a famous building type, for example

the Loggia dei Lanzi. However, the usage of round columns that has classically capitals,

of the Composite Order, in combination with a dosserets or impost blocks was new. As

well as, the circular arches and the segmented sphere-shaped domes at the back of them.

all elements were in grey stone and are put against white color of the walls. This theme

was then known as pietra serena which is Italian for serene stone. Similarly, novel was

the comparative sense. For example, the columns heights weren’t random. So, if a

horizontal line drawn across the top part of the columns, a square is shaped out of the

height including the distance from one column to another. This urge for symmetry was to

be a significant element in Renaissance architecture.

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Building Name Age Location Plans Styles Picture

Florence

Cathedral

March 25,

1436

Piazza del

Duomo, 50122

Firenze, Italy

Gothic, Renaissance

Basilica di San 1470

Piazza di San

Lorenzo, 9, 50123

Firenze, Italy

Renaissance

Santo Spirito 1487

Piazza Santo

Spirito, 30, 50125

Firenze, Italy

Renaissance

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Rapidly other commands originated, for example the Ridolfi Chapel in the church

of San Jacopo sopr'Arno, and the Barbadori Chapel in Santa Felicita. In both,

Brunelleschi developed elements were already used in the Ospedale degli Innocenti, and

also would be used in the Pazzi Chapel and the Sagrestia Vecchia. He used less works as

a type of practicability study for his well-known projects which is the dome of

the Cathedral of Florence.

Florence Cathedral:

The new cathedral in the city was the Santa Maria del Fiore , and by the year 1418

the dome was still to be well-defined. During the time that building was being designed

in the earlier century, nobody knew how a dome was built, agreed that it would be bigger

than the dome of the Pantheon in Rome and there was not any dome of that size that has

ever been built ever. For the reason that buttresses were banned by the city fathers, and

since it was not possible for getting rafters for support for a long time and that is strong

enough for job, it was not clear how a dome with a proportions like that might be made

without falling. Also, the stresses of compression were not that clear to understand, and

the mortars were used might get set only after some days, keeping the pressure on the

scaffolding for a long amount of time.

In year 1418, the Arte della Lana, the wool merchants' guild, was holding

competition to resolve the issue. Ghiberti and Brunelleschi were the two focal

competitors and Brunelleschi won the competition. The competition was trying to stand

up an egg on a piece of marble. Nobody knew how to do this but Brunelleschi, who,

according to Vasari: "... giving one end a blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand

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upright ...The architects protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo

answered, laughing, that they could have made the dome, if they had seen his design."

The dome, the lantern that was manufactured between 1446 to 146 and the exedra that

was made between 1439 and1445 would take up most of the life of Brunelleschi. His

success is credited to his mathematical mastermind and technical. Brunelleschi used four

million piece of bricks or even more in the dome of the building. He developed a new

lifting mechanism for raising brickwork of the dome, this is a job encouraged by

republication of Vitruvius' De Architectura, which defines Roman machines that used in

the 1st century AD to construct large constructions, for example the Pantheon and

the Baths of Diocletian. He also supplied one of the most famous patents for the hoist in

an effort to avoid the stealing of his ideas. Brunelleschi was approved the first modern

patent for his creation of a river transport vessel.

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He wanted to make the dome more stronger and higher, with no center supporter

to hold it up during construction.

With an octagonal base with no through center

So, it will be two domes as a replacement for of one, an inner and outer shell, whispered

together by brick arches and inter looking rings (stone and wood).

And rings holing the dome to make it stand out to the

world.

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There were 2 theories about placing the brick

Flower path growing. running from the dome center tracing

a circle of cones that goes smaller.

Wooden templets.

Brick Pattern:

Brunelleschi started using a special pattern

of layered bricks that he invented himself.

This horizontal bricks by other side

vertically other than continuing in one straight line

So, the bricks are in a zigzag in the space

between the two domes where pattern is noticeable

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today, but only in small areas and the pattern is simple.

Workers were about 220, 230 feet high and they were hanging over nothing, so if

they fell it would definitely be their death, and so Brunelleschi surely needed to have his

men believe in him, so he asked them to trust him with their lives, and this trust came

from making a small prototype of the dome with the same system.

This dome was done in 16 years, but when Brunelleschi died he didn’t leave behind any

sketches or details to know exactly how he achieved his master piece.

Other Works:

Brunelleschi's interests stretched also to math, engineering and the study of ancient

memorials. He developed hydraulic equipment and extravagant clockwork, unfortunately

both not survived.

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He designed also defenses used by Florence in its military against Pisa and Siena.

In the year1424, he was at work in Lastra a Signa, a village shielding the path to Pisa, and

in the year 1431in Italy, particularly the south, on the village walls of Staggia. The walls

still well-preserved, but it’s uncertain if they are by Brunelleschi specifically.

He was also temporarily active in of ship

making, when, in the year 1427, he constructed a

huge ship called Il Badalone for the

transportation of marble from Pisa to Florence

through the Arno River. Unfortunately, the ship

dropped on its first trip, laterally with a generous

amount of Brunelleschi's personal fortune. In

addition to his happenings in architecture,

Brunelleschi is also accredited with creating one

point linear perspective that transformed painting and covered the way for naturalistic

styles to grow as the Renaissance deviated from the stylized figures of the medieval art.

Also, he was somehow into urban planning: he deliberately located many of his

constructions in relative to the close squares and streets. For instance, destructions

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opposite of San Lorenzo were permitted in the year1433

making a square opposite to the church. At Santo Spirito,

he recommended that the front of the building be turned

towards the Arno so that the travelers can see it or to north

so that it can face a large piazza.

Sculptor:

we now think of him as the greatest architect of Florentine Renaissance style, but

he also spent many years trying to put his name into the sculpting design.

The Reinvention of Linear Perspective:

Early, basic ideas of perception were recognized to ancient Greeks, for example

Polygnotus of Thasos, as well as ancient Roman artists in their frescos, however were

gone in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, the Arab scientist Alhazen in his Book of Optics,

explained his concept about the optical basis of perspective. During the 14th century, his

book was translated into Latin language. Initially in his architectural profession

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Filippo Brunelleschi "revived" the values of linear viewpoint. With the basis of these

values, we can draw or paint by using a single point, to all the lines on the same plane

show join, and objects look smaller as they withdraw into the distance.

The primary Baptistery panel was created with a hole pierced through the center

view point. Enquiringly, Brunelleschi proposed that only to be detected by the observer

fronting the Baptistery, by seeing through the hole, from back unpainted side. As a mirror

moving in and out of sight, the observer saw the outstanding resemblance between the

actual sight of the Baptistery, and the reflected sight of the painted Baptistery copy.

Brunelleschi needed his new perception "realism" to be tested not by linking the painted

one to the actual Baptistery but to its reflection in accordance to the Euclidean laws of

symmetrical optics.

Brunelleschi presented his results with two painted panels of Florentine roads and

buildings. Via using Brunelleschi's viewpoint values, during his generation, artists were

able to use 2D paintings to help in making illusions of 3D space, creating a realism that

hasn’t been seen before.

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Discovery of linear perspective

Brunelleschi stood just inside the main doors of the

cathedral of Florence when he showed his first perspective

experiment.

Brunelleschi experiment demonstrated that linear

viewpoint could produce an incredibly a very realistic illusion

of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.

The notion that we can develop the system that would be easy to follow, but

highly accurate through time, onto a frozen two-dimensional surface is really an strange

success.

There is a discussion among scholars as to whether or not there was linear

perspective in the antient creation. but if there was any, it was missing, and linear

viewpoint was shaped, by Brunelleschi in the 15th century, around 1420 at least in the

modern world.

Some people said that Brunelleschi revived linear viewpoint after the ancient Greeks and

romans had it before him.

Brunelleschi had gone to Rome and studied antiquity, some have hypothesized

that developed the basis for linear viewpoint in an attempt to be able to exactly portray

the building he was looking at, with drawing and sketching. This help designers in the

13000s, they were creating forums and human figures that were 3 dimensions then adding

this figures to a real space.

Mathematics and science:

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As the culture becomes increasingly this is a culture that in some how many have

needed of its artists a kind of precision, a kind of mathematical accuracy in its symbol

and Brunelleschi transports them.

What does Brunelleschi make?

He created a perceptively accurate image of baptistery and what surround it, so

Brunelleschi develops a system with a few essential basics and through these elements it

is able to construct accurate scientifically, one point viewpoint.

They contain a vanishing point which is at the horizon line. As well as, a serious of

orthogonal, or illusionistic ally receding diagonals.

Then Brunelleschi painted and draws an image of the baptistery with linear

viewpoint and puts a small hole in the center. He takes the small painting or drawing and

puts a handle on them, and hold it in front of his face but facing away from him. Then he

takes a mirror and holds it in back of it in back of that. The painting has a small hole to

see through straight to the vanishing points. Holding the mirror an arm’s length, and if he

pulls the mirror away he can see the actual baptistry and bring the mirror back to see the

drawing, move the mirror away to see the actual baptistery, and see those linear well

organize.

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This is a very convincing experimentation.

What Brunelleschi saw in the reflection on the painting looks exactly like the real

ones that was in front of him, this might have the most profound effect on the history of

western art. Vertically each pointing in the western tradition, after the 15th century

responding to linear perspective either adopting it and within a couple of decades after

Brunelleschi discovery.

Theatrical machinery:

Also, he designed equipment to be used in churches through theatrical religious

recitals that recreated miracle stories from the Bible. Devices were formed by which

characters and angels were created to fly in the air in the middle of huge blasts of light

and fireworks. These events were during state and church visits. It isn’t really known for

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sure how many has Brunelleschi designed, but at least one for the church of San Felice is

stated in the records.

Filippo Brunelleschi Important Quotes:

“Do not share your inventions with many; share them only with the few who

understand and love the sciences.”

“I propose to build for eternity.”

“Many are ready, when listening to the inventor, to belittle and deny his

achievements so that he will no longer be heard in honourable places, but after

some months or a year, they use the inventor's words in speech or writing or

design.”

Filippo Brunelleschi Death:

Brunelleschi's body is in the vault of

the Cathedral of Florence. As clarified by

Antonio Manetti, who knew Brunelleschi

and wrote his biography, he said

Brunelleschi “was granted such honors as to

be buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria del

Fiore, and with a marble bust, which was said to be carved from life, and placed there in

perpetual memory with such a splendid epitaph.” In the entrance of the cathedral is his

epitaph: "Both the magnificent dome of this famous church and many other devices

invented by Filippo the architect, bear witness to his superb skill. Therefore, in tribute to

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his exceptional talents, a grateful country that will always remember him buries him here

in the soil below."

Conclusion:

Filippo Brunelleschi was a great man in every aspect. You can find his touches in many

things (machines, decoration, architecture, sculpture, prospective even new ways of

construction)

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References:

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/f/filippo_brunelleschi.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Brunelleschi

http://lavitafiorenza.blogspot.ae/2011/05/may-17th-ospedale-degli-innocenti-san.html

https://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/28/brunelleschi-and-the-re-discovery-of-linear-

perspective/