History and Theory of Architecture

RENAISSANCE STYLE
Filippo Brunelleschi (Part I)
1377 – 1446

Ben Ghida, RIBA, MAA, PhD

25th March 2020
 What is the Renaissance?
The Renaissance is both a period of history
and an artistic movement. It gradually
emerged in Italy, in the 14th and 15th
centuries, then throughout Europe. It ends
towards the end of the 16th century with
mannerism. This era marks the end of the
Middle Ages and the beginning of modern
times.
 Black death

Black Death spread across Europe

in the years 1346-53 [7years]
Danse Macabre

Medieval “Venetian” trade routes

in the Mediterranean sea
Corona-Virus
Corona-Virus
 45% to 50% of the European
population dying during a four-
year period

Geographic variation:

*Mediterranean Europe: Italy,

south of France and Spain [up
to 80%]

*Germany and UK about 20%

A plague doctor
costume protective
clothing worn by
doctors of Rome
 The Silk Route

BLACK DEATH
Yersinia pestis (y. pestis)
Silk Route
Crusades
Trade
Fleas on Rats
Centers of
infection: every
where there a
port(Venice,
Pisa…
 Consequence of Black Death
• A high percentage of Master Craftsmen
died
• The method of teaching the art is
compromised
• Because they did not have schools to
teach or study
• If you want to be an architect you have to
be an apprentice to a Master Architect or a
Master Mason
-Many workers died
-Remaining workers demanded and got fair wage
-Surplus of consumer goods
-Increased trade + production of luxury goods
-Rise of the middle class
• As a solution to the loss of the knowledge,
they recovered the antiquity, the glory of
Rome and the Roman arts and
Technologies, Philosophy, Crafts…
Back to antiquity to recover the Glory
Ancient Roman Culture

Rinascita = Rebirth
• Philosophy
• Art
• State craft
• etc…
 REBIRTH (consequence of black death)
• Ideal of the Centralized Plan
• Microcosm/Macrocosm
• Platonic Form

Johannes Kepler’s
Model of the
Universe, c. 1500

Square = Earth
Circle = Cosmos
Platonic solids

Senses are subjective (depends on opinions, tastes, feelings)

=
no truth in what you perceive
The only truth is in pure ideas = mathematics
Proportions of the
human body
Diagram drawn from
De Architectura de
Vitruve, Leonardo
da Vinci

Anthropomorphic:
Having the
properties,
lineaments or
proportions of
human beings.
 Neoplatonism
• a philosophical system, originated in the
3rd century a.d. by Plotinus, founded on
Platonic doctrine and Eastern mysticism,
with later influences from Christianity. It
holds that all existence consists of
emanations from God.

• The return to antiquity

 Neoplatonic thought
• The beauty of a flowers represents the
beauty of God = beauty

Beauty : transcending sense perception

 Are these girls beautiful?

How do you know it?

 transcending sense perception

If someone disagree with me you write a comment now.

PS: ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME WILL GET AN F

Ugly “angry” Guy Handsome Guy

Could be an ugly artist smart and cool too

 States of Italy
during the
renaissance
period
C.1494

Tuscany
 MEDIEVAL URBAN SPACE
San Gimignano
Middle Ages
(medieval) : the
period of
European
history from
about a.d. 500
to about 1500

Very dense
San Gimignano a hill town, very towns
distinctive because of towers: towers of
Towers of the
the nobles (families rivals each others to
nobles= prestige
have the most spectacular tallest - ITALIA
SAN GIMIGNANO
thinnest tower)
San Gimignano is a
Roman Town
Hill town
Cardo + Decumanus
Rational site plan
San Gimignano is in Tuscany and one of the best places in the world.
Situated on a hill, surrounded by the lovely Tuscan countryside, San
Gimignamo is a 10th century town that is mainly famous for its medieval
towers.
Guelph:
Pro-Pope (Florence); they are in favor in
experimenting (arts) and progress.
Wealth: banking, industry and trade.

Ghibeline :
Pro-Holy Roman Emperor (Siena); are in
favor of the continuity of the Gothic Style
[the international style]
Wealth: inherited money and land

Political rival cities

Piazza del Campo

Palazzo Pubblico
(Town Hall)

Siena Cathedral

Siena
PIAZZA DEL CAMPO
Hall of Peace in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
 How people thought about their society ?

Improvement of the
society through good
Many towers = prosperity management: justice,
wealth, security,
prosperity…

Effect of the Good Government on City and Country Life

by Ambrogio Lorenzetti [fresco] (c.1338-40)
Fresco: a technique of wall painting in
Mediterranean countries (wet method of painting on Devil
plaster)

The city is
falling

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Bad Government and the Effects of Bad

Government on the City Life (detail), fresco in the Palazzo
Pubblico, Siena
 Beginning of the Renaissance
The prosperity and the thriving
economic condition of cities have
been a pre-condition to the
renaissance.

It was a competition between cities

 Siena
Florence

Tuscany
PLAZZO VECCHIO, FLORENCE
Florence
Cathedral

Palazzo
Piazza della Signoria Vecchio (Town
Hall)
 Aerial view of Florence

Florence was Roman Town

BAPTISTERY BRONZE DOORS
COMPETITION
Andrea da Pisano
South doors
Baptistery Florence,
1330-1336
 Florence - Italia

Gothic Style

Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore

1296-1436 begun by Arnolfo da Cambia and completed by
Brunelleschi
1298-1359 Bell tower “campanile” by Giotto
 Tuscan Proto-Renaissance:
Romanesque + Classical
(Rounded arches+ Pediments+
Corinthian column capitals)

Originally a Roman temple

Revuilt in a Romanesque style c. 1059

Polychromatic façade (elevation): marble panels in various

shades of green and pink bordered by white
Filippo Brunelleschi
1377-1446
A goldsmith artist/worker
 Goldsmith

A goldsmith is
a metalworker who
specializes in working
with gold and
other precious metals.
Lorenzo Ghiberti
1378-1455

Architect, Sculptor
and author
Competition panels: Bronze doors, Florence Baptistery 1401

Ghiberti Brunelleschi
The sacrifice of Isaac
As was the tradition, Ghiberti arranged all
the characters are inside the tile in order,
aligned from left to right on a single floor
marked only by the rocky level (made of
rock).
The scene is dramatic and tells a
sacrifice, each character performs his
action without coming into contact with
others.

Filippo Brunelleschi sets up the scene

of the Sacrifice of Isaac with two
overlapping levels. The servants are
with the mule on the first level; and on
the second level, the sacrifice is taking
place.
Both uses roman figures,
classicised, nude (roman idea)
The 1401 competition in Florence and the theme of the
Sacrifice of Isaac.

The tile of Ghiberti.

• The non-interaction of the figures;
• The rigor and the Horror of the Gothic style.

The Brunelleschi tile.

• The gestures of the characters and the syntactic
construction;
• The incondensability of the subjects and the prospective
construction;
• The citation of the ancient: Greek-Roman
Ghiberti won the competition
Ghiberti 1378-1455
Porta del Paradiso
Guilberti: Gates of Paradise “Bas Relief”
1- Perspective
2- Roman architecture
3- Roman costumes
4- Muscular, volumetric bodies
5- Depiction of Space and
Landscape
Bas-relief (carving)
Door renovation
Andrea da Pisano, South Door
South doors were created by
Andrea Pisano
North and East doors by
Lorenzo Ghiberti.

The octagon had been a

common shape for baptisteries
for many centuries since early
Christian times.

Baptistery of Florence
Florentine Romanesque style
1059-1128
 Andrea di Bartolo, Way to Calvary, c. 1400.
The city appears very
small, the parallel
lines of the walls do
not recede into the
distance. It’s an
image and a perfect
example of the
problem facing
painters around 1400.
How do you make a
picture realistic? It
seems so simple to us
now, but it was a huge
problem that took
centuries to solve until
Filippo Brunelleschi
figured it out.
Duomo di Firenze and the superstar Brunelleschi
Brunelleschi perspective
experiment 1425

Station
point

Picture
plane
Horizon line

Perspective lines

Vanishing
Point
VP

Ground line
Brunelleschi Perspective Experiment
• The idea of using optics to paint more
convincing pictures was new.
• Brunelleschi painted a perfect representation of
the Baptistery from just inside the cathedral
door.
• But he added a small hole in the door in his
painting.
• Then he turned his picture facing the baptistery.
• So the drawing replaces reality
• When moving the mirror he can see how his
drawing matches the real building,
 Brunelleschi

Mathematical
perspective
The Tribute Money, fresco by Masaccio, 1425; in the
Brancacci Chapel,
 Vitruvian
Man
Coffering
Ionic capita
Corinthian pilasters
Thin

Masaccio's “Holy Trinity”

Diagram analysis
Perspective drawing for Church of Santo
Spirito in Florence
Filippo Brunelleschi c.1428
The Dome
44 m Width, 52 m high above the
ground
Siena Cathedral
 Pantheon Roma

43,3 meters
Views of the crossing
 Duomo Santa Maria Del Fiore

Filippo Brunelleschi issued a challenge,

saying that the dome design should be given
to the man who could make an egg stand up
on its vertical axis, as that man would have
the skills required for the job.
Can you make an egg stand on end?
*The formula of how to make concrete has been lost
*Not enough timber (wood) to make the forms and
scaffolding
*They did not want to use buttresses because they
don’t like gothic style.
Brunelleschi the Genius
Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria
Del Fiore
Plan of the Cathedral at Florence
 Brunelleschi and the Dome of Florence

1418 Submits first model for the cathedral dome

1420 final project, with Ghiberti, work begin 7

august 1420

1421 Award for invention of great crane for

construction of the dome
Construction details
Views of the gap
between the 2 shells
structure of the dome
Top of the dome
Rib structure
Brunelleschi’s use of herringbone brick pattern
To build the outer dome
Herringbone structural system
 Opus spicatum in the face of the church
Savennières, in Loire Valley, France

Roman bricks (opus spicatum) floor in

Trajan’s Market in Rome
 Roman Masonry (examples)

Opus Incertum Opus Testaceum Opus Mixtum

Brunelleschi used Roman construction
technology (rings), coffering and
masonry, Gothic Construction
technology (ribs) and Eastern (Persian)
Construction technology (double shell)
to built his dome.