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BRUNELLESCHI (or BRUNELLESCO), FILIPPO

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 683 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRUNELLESCHI (or BRUNELLESCO), FILIPPO ,(1379-1446), See also:Italian architect, the reviver in See also:Italy of the See also:Roman or Classic See also:style, was See also:born at See also:Florence in 1379. His See also:father, a See also:notary, had destined him for his own profession, but observing the boy's See also:talent for all sorts of mechanism, placed him in the gild of goldsmiths. Filippo quickly became a skilled workman, and perfected himself in the knowledge of See also:sculpture; See also:perspective and See also:geometry. He designed some portions of houses in Florence, and in 1401 he was one of the competitors for the See also:design of the See also:gates of the See also:baptistery of See also:San Giovanni. He was unsuccessful, though his See also:work obtained praise, and he soon afterwards set outfor See also:Rome. He studied hard, and resolved to do what he could to revive the older classical style, which had died out in Italy. Moreover, he was one of the first to apply the scientific See also:laws of perspective to his work. In 1407 he returned to Florence, just at the See also:time when it was resolved to See also:attempt the completion of the See also:cathedral See also:church of See also:Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi's See also:plan for effecting this by a See also:cupola was approved, but it was not till 1419, and after innumerable disputes, that the work was finally entrusted to him. At first he was hampered by his colleague See also:Ghiberti, of whom he skilfully got rid. He did not live to see the completion of his See also:great work, and the See also:lantern on the See also:summit was put up not altogether in accordance with the instructions and plans See also:left by him. The great cupola, one of the triumphs of See also:architecture, exceeds in some measurements that of St See also:Peter's at Rome, and has a more massive and striking See also:appearance.

Besides this masterpiece Brunelleschi executed numerous other See also:

works, among the most remarkable of which are the Pitti See also:palace at Florence, on the See also:pattern of which are based the Tuscan palaces of the 15th See also:century, the churches of San Lorenzo and Spirito Santo, and the still more elegant See also:Capella del Pazza. The beautiful carved crucifix in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is also the work of Brunelleschi. He died in Florence on the 16th of See also:April 1446, and was buried in the cathedral church of his native See also:city. See Manetti, Vita di Brunelleschi (Florence, 1812) ; Guasti, La cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence, 1857); von Fabriczy, Filippo Brunelleschi (See also:Stuttgart, 1892).

End of Article: BRUNELLESCHI (or BRUNELLESCO), FILIPPO

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