Fillippo Bruneleschi

A detailed Summary of Fillippo Bruneleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi was the son of a well-known attorney in Florence. So at a young age his father taught him how to read and write and know arithmetic. Since he thought Filippo would become an attorney like himself he saw to it that he read many books on many different subjects. However since his earliest childhood Filippo showed a great interest in drawing pictures. His father wishing him to be happy in his profession apprentice3d him to be a goldsmith. To be a goldsmith in Florence was a most demanding profession. Only very gifted people were privileged to make things of precious jewels and metals. Filippo made armor, clocks, watches, coins and various other objects. Filippo mastered the goldsmiths many skills. He was fascinated with weights and balances, and invented some ingenious watches and alarm clocks, which kept perfect time. It was quite natural that after time Filippo began to make more monumental works as a sculptor. He quickly mastered the art of sculp!

ting and became well known for it. But as he worked at being a goldsmith and sculptor he dreamed one day making buildings.

For Filippo and many others it seemed as if architecture was the mother of all the related arts of painting, sculpture, and decor

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Sometimes the egg would roll a little and other times it would simply roll of the table. Once more Filippo took his turn with no model or no construction nothing but a little egg. Quickly and with precision he tapped the egg on the surface of the table and flattened one side of the egg and it stood upright alone with no structure. "Ahh" screamed the masters "any one of us could have done that." " And so could have you built the dome, if were to have seen my model" replied Filippo. And in this way the contest was one by Filippo.

s the essence of Filippo's plan no wonder no one understood him, for constructing a dome with no centering was unheard of, even in ancient Roman times. Unfortunately not all the judges were convinced they began to dispute, the Florentines also doubted Filippo and said "why should a man, who perhaps is wrong, be given such great responsibility, when our city has so many gifted men?" The committee decided that the voce of the people needed to be heard so they appointed a co-worker whom would share have the title and salary for constructing the dome. This man who was chosen was Lorenzo Ghiberti. Filippo was furious with this but kept to himself he only Donatello of his rage. On August 7th 1420 construction of the dome began. As Filippo had expected Ghiberti made no interference and did none of the work but continued to get half the salary. Filippo designed scaffolding that accommodated cooks and wine shops so the workers did not have to climb up and down the scaffolding.!

Filippo was filled with despair. He kept to his house in fear that he had become the laughing stock of Florence. Many times he had come close to destroying his meticulously constructed model and all of the careful studies that had gone into it. But his friends Donatello and Luca della Robbia came to visit him and often soothed his hurt feelings. With the help of these two Filippo recovered his courage and made up his mind to try again. He took aside various influential members of the committee and patiently tried again to explain his theory. As the assembly dragged on with less and less chance of success the magistrates pleaded with Filippo to reenter the contest and forgive them for dismissing him so rudely. It was decided that whomever could make an egg stand upright should be the winner and the architect for the dome. So all the masters proceeded to make complicated structures to support a rolling egg. The master demonstrated his structure and the egg began to roll. !

The day came when Filippo grew tired of Ghiberti and had a plan. He was going to act ill so that the people would see that he was the only capable on constructing the dome. So he laid in bed pretending to be sick, when he did not so up not one stone was laid since he and only he knew how build it. Ghiberti resigned saying that he did not know what he was doing. So upon hearing this Filippo made an instant recovery and worked resumed. As he built his confidence grew and two years passed and all was well. One year Filippo's enemies began to talk to the workers and started telling them that their job was to dangerous for the pay they were getting, so the men went on strike for higher wages. Filippo knew it was the work of his enemies and quickly went to Lombardy and quickly replaced the workers. The Florentine masons were amazed that they could be replaced so quickly and begged Filippo to rehire them and he did. In 1432 the dome was nearly at its intended height. In 1436!

After returning to Florence, Filippo recovered rapidly. He spoke to everyone of what he knew of all that he had seen and learned in Rome. Many citizens impressed with drawings of Roman architecture asked him to remodel their building in the antique style. During the renaissance new ideas were welcomed and people looked to the past as a guide. One such man was Paolo Toscanelli. He met Filippo

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Approximate Word count = 2754
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Arts