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Genius usually comes at a price. Florence, the proud Tuscan city began an extravagant undertaking when in 1296 a new Cathedral was planned. The grand scheme saw an immense structure 502 feet long, 124 feet wide, 295 feet wide at the cross, 75 feet high at the arches, and 295 feet high at the dome. This was to follow traditional Latin Christianity building plans, which was to build the cathedral in the shape of a cross. The original cathedral date back to the 500’s, and was crumbling. Florence, a rising star during the High Medieval to Renaissance period, needed a powerful statement. When the idea to build the Santa Maria del Fiore transpired, the dome was immediately seen as an enigma. No one had unlocked ancient dome building secrets, not until Filippo Brunelleschi that is.
Almost from the beginning construction was hampered, and set backs would continue until the dome was finished in 1436. Money was always an issue, Black Plague showed up in waves throughout the 1300’s, war never ceased, power changed hands, and lack of competence made what was to be Florentine achievement into Florentine failure. The Wool Guild, who was in charge of building oversight, held contests to find an artist (artists were not called architects until much later) worthy of the impossible task. Florence was rife with capable artists, but artists were not engineers. When each plan was delivered, as miniature models, the Guild members would futilely debate each project. No one could answer how to engineer lifting the tons of building materials needed. No one could answer how to support the dome’s weight. No one had a workable design. No one had the money.
An unlikely partnership arose with another of Florence’s striving families, the Medici, more on them later. Briefly, the Medici were locked in power politics. They had created a complex banking network throughout all of Europe that had seen the Papacy bought, and the Catholic Church on Medici payroll. The Medici drove Italy out of the Medieval and into the Renaissance. Cosimo, Giovanni, Lorenzo, and other Medici funded the opulent artistic output of Michelangelo, Donatello, da Vinci, Vasari, Lippo Lippi, and many more. Giovanni happened upon an angry, dejected Brunelleschi.
Brunelleschi had been previously refused commission for the Bronze Doors of the city Baptistry in favor of his bitter rival, Lorenzo Ghiberti. In dismay, Brunelleschi fled Florence for Rome. While at Rome, he studied ancient buildings, and read Vitruvius, the ancient engineering master. Notes were taken and drawn, studied and restudied. When Brunelleschi returned, a new competition was under way for the Duomo of the Cathedral. The ideas on display came down to two, and Brunelleschi won the day with an ingenious trick. He challenged the judges and all present to stand an egg upright. All tried, and failed. Brunelleschi produced an egg and smashed it on a table, leaving it upright. Outraged, respondents said that was crude and simple, anyone could have thought of that. Brunelleschi wittily stated “but you didn’t think of it, I did.” He won the commission, partly due to his genius, but also partly due to the hope that he’d fail.
He never won many friends, and loved to play jokes. One joke saw Brunelleschi spitefully trick his neighbor, who had not come to a party held by Brunelleschi. The neighbor came home one evening to find the locks changed, and he could not enter. Brunelleschi was inside and screamed for the “intruder” to go away. Mystified, the neighbor went to the town square, and was greeted as another man. Eventually, the police, also in on the joke, jailed the confused man. The man, who he was being named as, also in on the joke, sent his own family to identify the neighbor falsely. Confused even more so, the neighbor began believing he was someone else. He was released the next morning and brought to what was supposed to be his home. This caused fits of panic, at which time all players revealed the ruse. The man left Florence, never to return. Such a reputation won Brunelleschi much despising hatred. Only Giovanni de Medici seemed to offer total support, but that support was tenuous due to political issues. Both men needed one another.
Eventually through city upheaval, takeover, and re-takeover, as well as Brunelleschi’s own pride, lack of material, and money and more due to his incredible genius, the Dome was completed in 1436. An immense undertaking that saw Brunelleschi engineer cranes with gears to lift the more than 37,000 tons, including 4 million bricks, needed. He created a technique with the previously incomprehensible perspective to illustrate dimension and space. Florence received her “Duomo”, the Medici received unrivalled power, and Brunelleschi assumed genius status. The Duomo still stands as Florence’s landmark, and the world’s largest Brick dome.
armchaircapitalist 