Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo di ser Brunellesco Lippi (b. 1377–d. 1446), also known as Filippo Brunelleschi, was a late medieval goldsmith, sculptor, perspectivist, inventor, engineer, architect, and sometime poet from Florence, Italy, whose decisive contributions to three major developments in Western material culture—the invention of mathematically consistent perspective image-making, the construction of the great Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence Cathedral) without centering, and the synthesis of a fresh new classical style of architecture—earned him great fame in his own day, and mythical status ever since as one of the initiators of the Renaissance. His expertise in engineering and the arts contributed significantly to the prosperity and prestige of the Florentine state during a time of geopolitical uncertainty. Brunelleschi is an enigmatic and controversial figure. The middle son of Ser Brunellesco di Lippo di Ventura (or, di Lippo Lapi), a reputable and moderately wealthy notary, and Giuliana Spini, he trained as a goldsmith and sculptor, and thus became a highly unusual late medieval artisan to emerge from the bourgeoisie. Little is known about Brunelleschi’s early life and intellectual formation, though scholars have conjectured various realms of learning based on his likely associations. Much of what is known about Brunelleschi’s most productive years, after 1418, comes from a biography by Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, an admiring younger contemporary whose Vita di Filippo Brunelleschi (c. 1480) has proven mostly reliable, with a few possible exceptions that continue to be debated (see Manetti 1970 and Manetti 1976, cited under Overviews: Primary Sources: Biographies). The impression of Brunelleschi as a lone genius implied in Manetti’s Vita, and Vasari’s elaborations thereof (see Vasari 1986, the original 1550 edition, and Vasari 1878–1885, the 1568 revision, under Overviews: Primary Sources: Biographies), contrasts with the sometimes collaborative Brunelleschi that emerges from other evidence. Most of what is known about Brunelleschi’s perspective experiments derives from a few lines by Manetti, which have inspired an extensive literature attempting to parse the exact technical nature of Brunelleschi’s achievement and its implications for later developments of human perception and Western culture. The cupola has been the subject of extensive analysis pertaining to design, construction techniques, structural principles, documentation technologies, and conservation needs. In addition to the cupola, including its lantern, Brunelleschi’s architectural oeuvre consists of nine other securely attributed works, eight of which are located in Florence and feature classical articulations in pietra serena (blue-gray sandstone). All of these works diverge to some degree from Brunelleschi’s original intentions, either through incompletion, change of course (by Brunelleschi or others), or later alteration. Reconstructions of those intentions, and even the extent of the oeuvre itself, inspire continual debate. Displaying a classical style apparently derived primarily from Romanesque and Gothic sources north of Rome rather than antique Roman models, though the extent of Roman influence remains a matter of debate, Brunelleschi’s architecture has never fully embodied the Renaissance narrative promoted by the earliest art historians. It thus presents an enduring interpretational challenge.

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