Brunelleschi's
Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture
by Ross King
Filippo Brunelleschi's design for the dome of the cathedral of Santa
Maria del Fiore in Florence remains one of the most towering achievements
of Renaissance architecture. Completed in 1436, the dome remains a remarkable
feat of design and engineering. Its span of more than 140 feet exceeds
St Paul's in London and St Peter's in Rome, and even outdoes the Capitol
in Washington, D.C., making it the largest dome ever constructed using
bricks and mortar. The story of its creation and its brilliant but "hot-tempered"
creator is told in Ross King's delightful Brunelleschi's Dome.
Both dome and architect offer King plenty of rich material. The story
of the dome goes back to 1296, when work began on the cathedral, but it
was only in 1420, when Brunelleschi won a competition over his bitter rival
Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the daunting cupola, that work began in earnest.
King weaves an engrossing tale from the political intrigue, personal jealousies,
dramatic setbacks, and sheer inventive brilliance that led to the paranoid
Filippo, "who was so proud of his inventions and so fearful of plagiarism,"
finally seeing his dome completed only months before his death. King argues
that it was Brunelleschi's improvised brilliance in solving the problem
of suspending the enormous cupola in bricks and mortar (painstakingly detailed
with precise illustrations) that led him to "succeed in performing an engineering
feat whose structural daring was without parallel." He tells a compelling,
informed story, ranging from discussions of the construction of the bricks,
mortar, and marble that made up the dome, to its subsequent use as a scientific
instrument by the Florentine astronomer Paolo Toscanelli. --Jerry Brotton,
Amazon.co.uk
Paperback: 194 pages
Penguin USA (Paper); ISBN: 0142000159; (October 30, ) |
