In the book Brunelleschi’s Dome, Ross King refers to Filipo Brunelleschi as a renaissance genius. It’s actually a part of the full title to the book. Many things led King to this conclusion. No precedence was set for what Brunelleschi did. His designs and methods were so incredibly innovative that he reinvented how architecture was done during the Renaissance.
Before Brunelleschi there was a profound lack of technical knowledge amongst the architecture community. Much of the building knowledge was lost with Rome. They wanted dome similar in width of the pantheon, without a wooden centering. The other issue was the fact that buttresses weren’t an approved form of architecture like much of the rest of the 14th century Europe. All this combined …show more content…
Brunelleschi couldn’t do this. So he tried to make the dome as light as possible. So he created a double shell. So the dome is actually hollow with stair in between the shells. This technique originated with the Persians. The hollow dome was also a great plan because it helped protect the inner dome from the elements. He also supports the shell with skeletal like ribs. Some are visible on the outside, while the rest are hidden underneath. Another way he accounted for the down and outward thrust was to create chains inside the dome made out of stone and wood locked together with iron. It was like a girdle or a wooden barrels iron rings. Brunelleschi created cantilevered scaffolding that could rise as the building went up. He also designed all kinds of new pulleys and hoists, using oxen. Thanks in large part to his experience as a clockmaker and goldsmith he was a technical and mathematical genius. He invented a hoist to lift beans and sandstone brick. The hoist he invented was the first ever to be equipped with a reverse gear. Even Leonardo DaVinci had been noted as admiring this ingenious piece of equipment. Filipo Brunelleschi had many great failures. The failure at the Baptistery was one of his defining failures. There he lost to his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti. From this failure he quit his sculpting and bronze working and left for his trip to Rome where the ruins really inspired him to become the great innovator he was. He also experienced failure later in life. He was imprisoned for claiming the wrong guild. Despite all his great work in the field, others didn’t like him to benefit from something he wasn’t a part
Before Brunelleschi there was a profound lack of technical knowledge amongst the architecture community. Much of the building knowledge was lost with Rome. They wanted dome similar in width of the pantheon, without a wooden centering. The other issue was the fact that buttresses weren’t an approved form of architecture like much of the rest of the 14th century Europe. All this combined …show more content…
Brunelleschi couldn’t do this. So he tried to make the dome as light as possible. So he created a double shell. So the dome is actually hollow with stair in between the shells. This technique originated with the Persians. The hollow dome was also a great plan because it helped protect the inner dome from the elements. He also supports the shell with skeletal like ribs. Some are visible on the outside, while the rest are hidden underneath. Another way he accounted for the down and outward thrust was to create chains inside the dome made out of stone and wood locked together with iron. It was like a girdle or a wooden barrels iron rings. Brunelleschi created cantilevered scaffolding that could rise as the building went up. He also designed all kinds of new pulleys and hoists, using oxen. Thanks in large part to his experience as a clockmaker and goldsmith he was a technical and mathematical genius. He invented a hoist to lift beans and sandstone brick. The hoist he invented was the first ever to be equipped with a reverse gear. Even Leonardo DaVinci had been noted as admiring this ingenious piece of equipment. Filipo Brunelleschi had many great failures. The failure at the Baptistery was one of his defining failures. There he lost to his bitter rival Lorenzo Ghiberti. From this failure he quit his sculpting and bronze working and left for his trip to Rome where the ruins really inspired him to become the great innovator he was. He also experienced failure later in life. He was imprisoned for claiming the wrong guild. Despite all his great work in the field, others didn’t like him to benefit from something he wasn’t a part