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Filippo Brunelleschi
Filippo Brunelleschi and the Baptisery doors competition
Filippo Brunelleschi was among the participants in the well-known competition for the Baptistery doors, taking place in Florence in the first year of the 15th Century.
That may be a convenient point from which to trace the germination of Renaissance architecture.
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Filippo Brunelleschi - Duomo Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence
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The goldsmiths and sculptors of Tuscany who took part in the competition were Jacopo della Quercia, Niccolo d'
Arezzo, Francesco Val d'
Ombrino, Simone da Colle, Niccolo Lamberti, Filippo Brunelleschi, and Lorenzo Ghiberti.
The requirements were that each competitor should model a relief, in bronze, of a single panel, representing the offering up of Isaac. A year was allowed for its completion, the lines of Andrea Pisano in an earlier gate (1330—36) of the Baptistery being closely followed.
Filippo Brunelleschi'
s group was in many respects a finer composition, but was of less excellence as a bronze casting, and received the second place. Possibly Filippo Brunelleschi would have arrived at a nobler design for the gate had the competition been on a different basis, but in the test panel Ghiberti was adjudged successful, and was ultimately entrusted with the work.
The decision in this competition seems to have led Filippo Brunelleschi to try another path in which he might attain the undisputed supremacy his ambitious and somewhat exclusive nature craved. The story has often been told how he set out for Rome about the year 1403 with an admiring friend, Donato di Niccolo di Betti Bardi, afterwards known to fame as Donatello, who was then just sixteen years old, and how, supporting himself as a goldsmith, he gave the most ardent attention for about four years to the buildings of the Roman Empire, with the view of gaining a grasp of the principles of the classical styles.
Filippo Brunelleschi and The Duomo in Florence
Returning to Florence, Filippo Brunelleschi occupied his mind with the completion of the cathedral. The cathedral, begun by Arnolfo del Cambio about one hundred and twelve years before, and continued by Giotto and Francesco Talenti, was still in a slow process of development. A council of architects had met in 1366 and fixed the shape of the choir and dome, but considerable indecision prevailed as to the best manner of covering the great octagonal opening and the three apses.
Filippo Brunelleschi, by all the influence he could command, persuaded the Council to carry out his ideas.
For Filippo Brunelleschi, the Council approval opened the path towards his greatest achievement,
the Duomo of Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.
Filippo Brunelleschi - Work at the Duomo
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