Even when Florence didn’t characterize absolutely the pinnacle of human civilization on the finish of the thirteenth century, it needed to have been a powerful contender for the place. What town lacked, nonetheless, was a cathedral befitting its standing. Therefore the development, which commenced in 1296, of simply such a holy construction, in accordance with bold plans drawn up by architect Arnolfo di Cambio. However when di Cambio died in 1302, work got here roughly to a cease for practically half a century. Building resumed in 1344 below Giotto, whose personal dying three years later left the mission to his assistant Andrea Pisano, who was himself succeeded by Francesco Talenti, Giovanni di Lapo Ghini, Alberto Arnoldi, Giovanni d’Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravanti, and Andrea Orcagna.
None of those architects, nonetheless astute, managed to complete the cathedral: in 1418, it nonetheless had a gaping gap on high the place its dome ought to have been, and in any case no viable design or engineering process to assemble one. “So they’d a contest, and everyone was invited to submit their initiatives,” says Youtuber Manuel Bravo, who tells the story in the video on the high of the publish.
Enter the sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi, who declared, in impact, “I can do it. I can construct you the dome. And what’s extra, I can construct you the dome with out cash or earth.” That final was a reference to an earlier architect’s suggestion that the dome below development be supported with a mound of grime crammed with cash, so peasants would gladly volunteer to cart it away after completion.
Brunelleschi’s significantly extra elegant concept was impressed by the ruins of antiquity, not least the Pantheon, which then boasted the biggest dome ever in-built Europe, mentioned by Bravo in a earlier video. On this one he breaks down the ingenious methods Brunelleschi used to outdo the Pantheon, and with out utilizing a brief supporting construction of any sort. As an alternative, he included ring-like components “tying the dome from exterior, as in the event that they have been belts like those we put on,” in addition to “a specific type of brickwork, a sample with a sequence of spiral ribs” which “allowed them to lock collectively the bricks that have been positioned horizontally.” The end result, a construction “fully self-bracing in all its phases of development,” has stood firmly since 1469 as, fairly actually, a crowning glory: not simply of the Duomo, however of Florence as properly.
Associated content material:
The Life & Occasions of Buckminster Fuller’s Geodesic Dome: A Documentary
The Historical past of Western Structure: A Free Course Shifting from Historical Greece to Rococo
Free Course: An Introduction to the Artwork of the Italian Renaissance
Primarily based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and tradition. His initiatives embody the Substack e-newsletter Books on Cities, the ebook The Stateless Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Century Los Angeles and the video sequence The Metropolis in Cinema. Comply with him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Fb.
