Years of life: 1377 - 1446
Perhaps, in no other area of ​​the artistic culture of Italy, the turn to a new understanding was so connected with the name of one brilliant master, as in architecture, where Brunelleschi was the ancestor of the new direction.

Presunto ritratto di Brunelleschi, Masaccio, San Pietro in Cattedra(1423-1428), Cappella Brancacci, Firenze

Filippo Brunelleschi was born in 1377 in Florence. Manetti tells of Brunelleschi's childhood and early youth: “As is customary among wealthy people and as is done in most cases in Florence, Filippo was taught from an early age to read, write and count, as well as a little Latin. His father was a notary and thought that his son would do the same, because among those who did not intend to become a doctor, or a lawyer, or a priest, few at that time studied Latin or were forced to learn it.

Filippo was very obedient, diligent, timid and bashful, and this served him better than threats - at the same time he was ambitious when it was necessary to achieve something. From an early age, he showed interest in drawing and painting and did it very successfully.

When his father decided, according to custom, to teach him the craft, Filippo chose jewelry, and his father, being a reasonable man, agreed with this.

Thanks to his studies in painting, Filippo soon became a professional in the jewelry craft and, to the surprise of everyone, was very successful. In niello, and smalt, and in relief on stone, and in carving, cutting and polishing precious stones, he in a short time became an excellent master, and so it was in everything he undertook, and in this art and in every other he achieved far more success than seemed possible at his age."

Sacrificio di Isacco, Brunelleschi

In 1398, Brunelleschi joined the Arte della Seta and became a goldsmith. In this workshop, which was engaged in the production of silk fabrics, gold and silver threads were also spun. However, joining the workshop did not yet give a certificate, he received it only six years later, in 1404. Prior to that, he practiced in the workshop of the famous jeweler Linardo di Matteo Ducci in Pistoia. Filippo remained in Pistoia until 1401. When a competition was announced for the second doors of the Florentine Baptistery, he, apparently, was already living in Florence, he was twenty-four years old.

North doors of the Florentine Baptistery
Lorenzo Ghiberti

A trip to Rome with Donatello, where both masters studied the monuments of ancient art, was decisive for Brunelleschi in choosing his main business. But his life was connected not only with architecture, but also with politics. Filippo had a large fortune, had a house in Florence and land holdings in its vicinity. He was constantly elected to the government bodies of the Republic, from 1400 to 1405 - to the Council del Popolo or the Council del Comune. Then, after a thirteen-year break, from 1418 he was regularly elected to the Council del Dugento and at the same time to one of the "chambers" - del Popolo or del Commune, and did not miss almost a single meeting.

Giovanni Bandini

All construction activities of Brunelleschi, both in the city itself and outside it, took place on behalf of or with the approval of the Florentine commune. According to the projects of Filippo and under his leadership, a whole system of fortifications was erected in the cities conquered by the Republic, on the borders of its subordinate or controlled territories. Major fortification work was carried out in Pistoia, Lucca, Pisa, Livorno, Rimini, Siena and in the vicinity of these cities. Florence was surrounded by a wide ring of fortresses. Brunelleschi strengthened the banks of the Arno, built bridges. He is involved in a complicated relationship with the Milanese dukes. During the brief periods of truce, he was sent to Milan, Mantua, Ferrara - apparently, not only in connection with his professional duties, but also with a diplomatic mission.

Mura di Lastra a Signa
Brunelleschi

If, before the competition for the construction of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, Brunelleschi remained a “private” person, free to choose activities and entertainment, now he has become a statesman, whose life was scheduled by the hour. He worked at several sites at once, led large groups of craftsmen and workers. In parallel with the construction of the cathedral in the same year 1419, Brunelleschi began to create the Orphanage complex.

Educational home

In fact, Brunelleschi was the chief architect of Florence; he almost did not build for private individuals, he carried out mainly government or public orders. In one of the documents of the Florentine Signoria, which dates back to 1421, he is called: "... a man of the most penetrating mind, gifted with amazing skill and ingenuity ...".

Educational home

The dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is the earliest of Brunelleschi's largest works in Florence. The construction of the dome over the altar part of the basilica, begun by the architect Arnolfo di Cambio around 1295 and completed mainly by 1367 by the architects Giotto, Andrea Pisano, Francesco Talenti, turned out to be an impossible task for the medieval building technology of Italy. It was resolved only by the master of the Renaissance, an innovator who harmoniously combined an architect, engineer, artist, theoretical scientist and inventor.

Dome of Santa Maria del Fiore

Before starting work, Brunelleschi drew a life-size plan of the dome. He took advantage of the Arno Bank near Florence for this. The official start of construction work was celebrated on August 7, 1420 with a ceremonial breakfast. A treat was raised up the spiral staircase to the drum of the cathedral: a cask of red wine for workers and craftsmen, a fiasca of white trebbiano for management, and baskets of bread and melons.

Santa Maria del Fiore

Since October of this year, Brunelleschi and Ghiberti began to receive a salary, however, very modestly, since it was believed that they carried out only general management and were not required to visit the construction site regularly.

Santa Maria del Fiore

The difficulty of erecting the dome was not only in the huge size of the overlapped span (the diameter of the dome at the base is about 42 meters), but also in the need to build it without scaffolding on a high octagonal drum with a relatively small wall thickness. Therefore, all the efforts of Brunelleschi were aimed at maximizing the weight of the dome and reducing the thrust forces acting on the walls of the drum. Lightening the weight of the vault was achieved by the construction of a hollow dome with two shells, of which the thicker lower one is the carrier, and the thinner upper one is protective. The rigidity of the structure was provided frame system, the basis of which was made up of eight main bearing ribs located at the eight corners of the octahedron and interconnected by stone rings encircling them. This major innovation in the construction technique of the Renaissance was complemented by a characteristic Gothic technique - giving the vault an lancet shape.

Alberti, with the artist's instinct, understood and appreciated this daring plan, saying that Filippo "raised his huge structure above the heavens", that is, above the heavens. This was precisely the idea of ​​Filippo, for the implementation of which he fought until the last day - to create a second, man-made sky, "unheard of and unseen", a huge celestial structure, facing, as a challenge, to heaven and competing with heaven.

Santa Maria del Fiore

The Florentine dome really dominated the entire city and the surrounding landscape. Its strength is determined not only by its gigantic absolute dimensions, not only by the elastic power and at the same time the ease of taking off of its forms, but by the greatly enlarged scale in which the parts of the building that rise above the urban development are solved - the drum with its huge round windows and covered with red tiles. vault verges with powerful ribs separating them. The simplicity of its forms and large scale are contrastingly emphasized by the relatively finer dissection of the forms of the crowning lantern.

Santa Maria del Fiore

The new image of the majestic dome as a monument erected to the glory of the city embodied the idea of ​​the triumph of reason, characteristic of the humanistic aspirations of the era. Due to its innovative figurative content, important urban planning role and constructive perfection, the Florentine dome was that outstanding architectural work of the era, without which neither Michelangelo's dome over the Roman Cathedral of St.

Saint Paul's Cathedral

Bound by the medieval parts of the cathedral, Brunelleschi in his dome, of course, could not achieve a complete stylistic correspondence between new and old forms. So the firstborn of the architectural style of the early Renaissance was the Educational House in Florence.

Educational home

In terms of the building, which is designed in the form of a large square courtyard built around the perimeter, framed by light arched porticos, techniques are used that go back to the architecture of medieval residential buildings and monastic complexes with their cozy courtyards protected from the sun. However, with Brunelleschi, the entire system of rooms surrounding the center of the composition - the courtyard - acquired a more ordered, regular character. The most important new quality in the spatial composition of the building was the “open plan” principle, which includes such elements of the environment as a street passage, a passage courtyard, connected by a system of entrances and stairs with all the main premises. These features are reflected in its appearance. The facade of the building, divided into two floors of unequal height, in contrast to medieval structures of this type, stands out for its exceptional simplicity of form and clarity of proportional structure.

Educational home

The tectonic principles developed in the Orphanage, expressing the originality of Brunelleschi's order thinking, were further developed in the old sacristy (sacristy) of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence (1421-1428). The interior of the old sacristy is the first example of a centric spatial composition in the architecture of the Renaissance, reviving the system of a dome that covers a square room. The inner space of the sacristy is distinguished by great simplicity and clarity: the room, cubic in proportions, is covered with a ribbed dome on sails and on four girth arches, resting on an entablature of pilasters of the full Corinthian order. Darker in color pilasters, archivolts, arches, edges and edges of the dome, as well as connecting and framing elements (round medallions, window trims, niches) emerge with their clear outlines against the light background of the plastered walls. This combination of orders, arches and vaults with surfaces bearing walls creates a feeling of lightness and transparency of architectural forms.

Sacristy of the Church of San Lorenzo

Simultaneously with the restructuring of the church of San Lorenzo, Brunelleschi worked on less important construction sites - in the Barbadori Chapel in the church of Santa Felicita on the other side of the Arno and in the Palazzo Barbadori.

Barbadori Chapel

In 1429, representatives of the Florentine magistrate sent Brunelleschi to Lucca to supervise the work related to the siege of the city. After surveying the area, Brunelleschi proposed the project. Brunelleschi's idea was to build a system of dams on the Serchio River and raise the water level in this way, to open the floodgates at the right time so that the water, gushing through special channels, would flood the entire area around the city walls, forcing Lucca to surrender. Brunelleschi's project was implemented, but failed, the water, gushing, flooded not the besieged city, but the besiegers' camp, which had to be hastily evacuated.

Barbadori Chapel

Perhaps Brunelleschi was not to blame - the Council of Ten did not make any claims against him. However, the Florentines considered Filippo to be responsible for the failure of the Lucca campaign, they did not give him a pass on the streets. Brunelleschi was in despair. In September 1431, he made a will, apparently fearing for his life. There is an assumption that at this time he left for Rome, fleeing shame and persecution.

Barbadori Chapel

However, all this did not prevent Filippo three years later from "joining the battle without fear of risk" again. In 1434, he defiantly refused to pay a contribution to the workshop of masons and woodworkers. It was a challenge thrown by the artist, who realized himself as an independent creative person, to the guild principle of labor organization. As a result of the conflict, Filippo ended up in a debtor's prison. The conclusion did not force Brunelleschi to submit, and soon the workshop was forced to give in: Filippo was released at the insistence of the Opera del Duomo museum, since construction work could not continue without him. It was a kind of revenge taken by Brunelleschi after the failure at the siege of Lucca.

Barbadori Chapel

Filippo believed that he was surrounded by enemies, envious people, traitors who tried to get around him, deceive, rob him. It was hard to say whether this was really the case, but that was how Filippo perceived his position, that was his position in life.

Barbadori Chapel

The mood of Brunelleschi, no doubt, was influenced by the act of his adopted son - Andrea Lazzaro Cavalcanti, nicknamed Bugiano. Filippo adopted him in 1417 as a five-year-old child and loved him like his own, raised him, made him his student, assistant. In 1434, Buggiano ran away from home, taking all the money and jewelry. From Florence he went to Naples. What happened is unknown, it is only known that Brunelleschi forced him to return, forgave him and made him his sole heir. Apparently, Bujano was not the only one to blame for this quarrel.

Barbadori Chapel

Having come to power, Cosimo de' Medici dealt with his rivals Albizzi and all those who supported them very decisively. In the elections to the Soviets in 1432, Brunelleschi was voted out for the first time. He ceased to take part in elections and refused political activity.

Barbadori Chapel

Back in 1430, Brunelleschi began the construction of the Pazzi Chapel, where they found their further improvement and development of the architectural and constructive techniques of the sacristy of the church of San Lorenzo. This chapel, commissioned by the Pazzi family as their family chapel and also serving as meetings of the clergy from the monastery of Santa Croce, is one of the most perfect and striking works of Brunelleschi. It is located in the narrow and long medieval courtyard of the monastery and is a rectangular room, elongated across the courtyard and closing one of its short end sides.

Pazzi Chapel

Brunelleschi designed the chapel in such a way that it combines the transverse development of the interior space with a centric composition, and from the outside the facade solution of the building with its domed completion is emphasized. The main spatial elements of the interior are distributed along two mutually perpendicular axes, which gives rise to a balanced building system with a dome on sails in the center and three unequal-width branches of the cross on its sides. The absence of the fourth is made up for by a portico, the middle part of which is highlighted by a flat dome.

Pazzi Chapel

The interior of the Pazzi Chapel is one of the most characteristic and perfect examples of the peculiar use of the order for the artistic organization of the wall, which is a feature of the architecture of the early Italian Renaissance. With the help of a pilaster order, the architects divided the wall into load-bearing and carried parts, revealing the forces of the vaulted ceiling acting on it and giving the structure the necessary scale and rhythm. Brunelleschi was the first who, at the same time, managed to truthfully show the bearing functions of the wall and the conventionality of order forms.

Pazzi Chapel

In 1436, Brunelleschi began work on the design of the Basilica of San Spirito. The basilica has a peculiar plan: the side naves with semicircular chapels adjacent to them form a single continuous row of equal cells, bypassing the church along the entire perimeter, with the exception of the western facade. Such a construction of chapels in the form of semicircular niches is of significant structural importance: the folded wall could be extremely thin and at the same time well perceived the thrust of the sail vaults of the side aisles.

Basilica of San Spirito

The last cult building of Brunelleschi, in which there was a synthesis of all his innovative techniques, was the oratorio (chapel) of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence (founded in 1434). This building was not finished.

Oratory of Santa Maria degli Angeli

The question of Brunelleschi's role in the creation of a new type of urban palace is extremely complicated by the fact that the only work of this kind for which the authorship of the master is documented is the unfinished and badly damaged Palazzo di Parte of Guelph. However, here, too, Brunelleschi showed himself quite clearly as an innovator, breaking with the medieval tradition much more decisively than most of his contemporaries and successors. The proportions of the building, its articulation and form are determined by the classical order system, which is the most remarkable feature of this building, which represents the earliest example of the use of the order in the composition of the Renaissance urban palace.

Palazzo di Parte Guelph

In Florence, a number of works have been preserved that reveal, if not the direct participation of Brunelleschi, then, in any case, his direct influence. These include the Palazzo Pazzi, the Palazzo Pitti and the Badia (abbey) in Fiesole.

Palazzo Pitti

None of the large constructions begun by Filippo was completed by him, he was busy with all of them, supervised them all at the same time, and not only in Florence. At the same time, he built in Pisa, Pistoia, Prato - he traveled to these cities regularly, sometimes several times a year. In Siena, Lucca, Volterra, in Livorno and its environs, in San Giovanni Val d "Arno, he led the fortification work. Brunelleschi sat on various councils, commissions, gave advice on issues related to architecture, construction, engineering; he was invited to Milan in connection with the construction of the cathedral, they asked him for advice on strengthening the Milan castle.He traveled as a consultant to Ferrara, Rimini, Mantua, carried out an examination of marble in Carrara.

Milan castle

Brunelleschi very accurately described the environment in which he had to work throughout his life. He carried out the orders of the commune, the money was taken from the state treasury. Therefore, the work of Brunelleschi at all its stages was controlled by various kinds of commissions and officials appointed by the commune. Each of his proposals, each model, each new stage in construction was tested. He was forced again and again to participate in competitions, to receive the approval of the jury, which, as a rule, consisted not so much of specialists as of respected citizens, who often did not understand anything about the essence of the issue and reduced their political and private scores during discussions.

Brunelleschi had to reckon with the new forms of bureaucracy that had developed in the Florentine Republic. His conflict is not the conflict of the new man with the remnants of the old medieval order, but the conflict of the man of the new time with new forms of social organization.

Death mask of Brunelleschi

Brunelleschi's grave

Text by Dmitry Samin

At the end of the 13th century, the General Council of the People in Florence entrusted the largest guilds with the care of orphans and illegitimate children. At first, existing hospitals and monasteries were used for this. At the beginning of the 15th century, it was decided to build another shelter in the small square of Santissima Annunziata (Piazza della Santissima Annunziata), as an institution of a new type. The construction was started by order of the workshop of silk spinners and jewelers, of which Brunelleschi was a member, he developed the project of the first orphanage in Europe, which opened in 1444. The model of the shelter, made by Brunelleschi, was kept for a long time in the building of the silk workshop, in accordance with it, construction continued, and later it was lost.

As a result, not a temple, not even a palace, but a public building had the high honor of being the first-born of truly Renaissance architecture. Ospedale degli Innocenti, or the Shelter for the Innocents (the name was given by the biblical story “Massacre of the Innocents” on the orders of King Herod), was intended for orphans and foundlings; it was supposed to become, first of all, an Educational House, and not a medical institution, under one roof it was supposed to unite a nursery, a school, various kinds of workshops; also medical service, pharmacy and church. The architectural design of the House already contained ideas and principles, the development of which would later form the basis of the architecture of hospital projects proper: the compositional design clearly expressed the public character of the building, the independence of the complex, its prominent place in the city, the organization of living space, taking into account the function of the building, many small premises for various purposes, a combination of isolated, independent parts instead of a continuous chain of Gothic cross vaults. The portico was completed in 1424, the last time Brunelleschi's name is mentioned.

Vasari in his "Biography" mentions in passing the Orphanage, among the projects developed during the construction of the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Unlike Vasari, modern historians and art historians give the Brunelleschi Orphanage project the highest rating. It is generally recognized as the first monument of the Renaissance style in architecture, and the fact that Brunelleschi's reformatory activity in architecture began with a secular building is indicative.

Brunelleschi created a kind of ideal children's institution that required an ideal architectural embodiment, but did not coincide with real needs. He decided to create an architectural variation on the theme of antiquity - as it was understood at that time. Porticoes, loggias with columns, regular courtyards and underground spaces filled with symbolic meaning for work and meals. In an institution of a new type, a staff of educators of a new, humanistic warehouse was also supposed. However, from the very beginning, the main function of the house was not taken into account - to serve as a shelter for babies. Initially, there were no rooms for nannies and nurses, for washing babies, for washing and drying clothes, even for the actual rooms for children. The great architect created a building that ended up in textbooks on the history of architecture, but which had to be completely rebuilt inside.

In terms of the building, which is designed in the form of a large square courtyard built around the perimeter, framed by light arched porticos, techniques are used that go back to the architecture of medieval residential buildings and monastic complexes with their cozy courtyards protected from the sun. However, with Brunelleschi, the entire system of rooms surrounding the center of the composition - the courtyard - acquired a more ordered, regular character. Apparently, the service premises (kitchen, dining room, servants' quarters, administration rooms) were located on the first floor, while the bedrooms and study rooms were located on the second. All rooms are united around a square courtyard, in the left wing of the loggia there is a special niche (rota), where people could anonymously leave a foundling.

At the first glance at this building, its essential and fundamental difference from the Gothic and ancient buildings is striking. The façade of the building has been turned into an aerial arcade supported by thin Corinthian columns; it links together the space of the house and the square in front of it, between the square and the building there is a staircase of several steps, almost the entire width of the facade. The accentuated horizontality of the facade, the lower floor of which is occupied by a loggia opening onto the square with nine arches, the symmetry of the composition, completed on the sides by two wider openings framed by pilasters, all evoke the impression of balance, harmony and peace. Brunelleschi embodied the classical idea not in full-fledged forms of ancient architecture. The light proportions of the columns, the grace and subtlety of the profiling of the cornices give out the kinship of Brunelleschi's creations, reminiscent of examples of the Tuscan Proto-Renaissance.

Due to the heavy wars with Filippo Maria Visconti, there was always a shortage of money, and in construction, of course, there were interruptions, which explains the fate of many of Brunelleschi's buildings that remained unfinished. The lack of funds to some extent also explains the modesty of those building materials used by Brunelleschi. A white plastered wall and articulations of pietra serena (local stone of a noble gray color) are the two main materials that the master especially liked to resort to. Brunelleschi preferred simple and clearly visible forms, imbued with a democratic spirit, in addition, the general economic situation dictated a careful attitude to the use of expensive materials.

In the Middle Ages, it was not customary to decorate buildings for utilitarian purposes with facades. Brunelleschi, under the influence of new humanistic ideas, built an open and friendly facade.

A two-story facade in the form of an arcade or loggia with columns that are on the steps, giving monumentality and at the same time lightness to the building, stretched along one of the sides of the square. Its lower floor opens with nine arcades on slender, graceful columns; under the arches there are nine rectangular windows. The columns carry the weight placed on them without any effort, without any tension. Gothic buildings usually unfolded in height, while Brunelleschi deployed the facade horizontally. A well-thought-out clear plan, excellent light proportions, simple forms of a façade filled with light and full of air create an impression of balance and harmony.

"The proportional relationship between the building and the space of the square is expressed by the size of the semicircular arches, the ratio between their width and the height of the columns, the seeming perspective reduction of the upper floor with windows" J.K. Argon.

The second floor is decorated in the form of a smooth white plastered wall, all articulations, like the columns, are made of gray stone (pietra serena), clearly contrasting with the white wall, this coloristic effect will become Brunelleschi's favorite.

In the project of the Orphanage, the features of constructive clarity, ancient simplicity, accordion were clearly manifested, it became a model for the entire architecture of the Renaissance. The architect revived the order system, which satisfied the new aesthetic thinking and played a big role in the further fate of European architecture. The order provided the transition from a feudal castle or fortress house to a classical Italian Renaissance palazzo open to the outside world. Brunelleschi's building expresses one of the main features of the early Renaissance architecture intended for people, it is proportionate in scale to a person, close to his real growth, in contrast to Gothic buildings with their high vaults.

Subsequently, in the years 1463-1466, the loggia was decorated with 14 polychrome majolica medallions made of glazed clay in tympanums between the arches, created in the workshop of Luca della Robia, probably Andrea della Robia, depicting babies swaddled to the waist. This image has entered the circle of international medical symbols, as E.D. Gribanov writes about in his book. A copy of the medallion was placed on the facade of the Westminster Children's Hospital in England. Since the 19th century "Florentine baby" has become a symbol of pediatrics in a number of countries.

The Orphanage Ensemble, the Pazzi Chapel, the Basilica of San Lorenzo, etc. What do we know about him and why do his buildings attract such close attention?

“Many, to whom nature has given small stature and a plain appearance, have a spirit full of such greatness, and a heart full of such boundless daring, that they never find peace in life unless they take on difficult and almost impossible things and do not bring them to the end marvelous to those who contemplate them."
Giorgio Vasari

If the city is great, then the descendants have an irresistible desire to bask in the rays of its glory, since there is no better way to emphasize the significance of the new city than to liken it to one of the legendary capitals. So, after the recognition of Constantinople as the "Second Rome", several cities already proudly call themselves the "Third Rome". Russians are closest to the example of Moscow; Well, having a historically developed radial-circular layout, the capital of Russia may well apply to itself the expression that "all roads lead to Rome", and if the city does not have enough of its hills for final plausibility, then you can count the surrounding ones - if only they eventually it became seven.

The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was designed just in such a way that the entire population of the city (at that time - 90,000 people) could fit inside: something like a huge covered square. It turned out to be a really impressive building: length - 153 meters, width in the transept - 90 meters. It is the fourth largest church in the world, after St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's in London and the Duomo in Milan. By themselves, these numbers may not say anything, but as soon as you walk around the cathedral, it will immediately become clear how huge it is.

But there are also perfectly fair comparisons. From time immemorial, Greek Athens has been considered the "cradle of architecture", the ancient Hellenes left behind invincible architectural principles, which the Roman theorist Vitruvius combined with three words "benefit, strength, beauty". Many centuries later, in the small Tuscan city of Florence, local humanists revived the Greek canons, reworking them just enough so that a fundamentally new, revolutionary Renaissance style appeared on Earth, and Florence got the right to be called "new Athens".

The heyday of the newly revived style is the Quattrocento era, i.e. XV century, but the first buildings that run counter to the Romanesque and Gothic concepts of beauty appeared in Florence as early as the XIV century. Among the cramped medieval buildings, there arose (at first in scattered inclusions) structures of a new era. At first, these were unusual buildings of industrial manufactories, then the first guild houses appeared, and, finally, opposite the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Giotto's bell tower shot up to a height of 84 meters. Its construction began in 1334 next to the unfinished Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. When Giotto was asked to continue the construction of the Duomo, he preferred to direct his efforts to the construction of the bell tower, but he owns the main ideas of the tricolor marble decoration and octagonal pilasters*, which were later transferred to the entire Cathedral.

dome of the cathedral

The long-standing rivalry between Florence, Pisa, Siena and Lucca was expressed in different ways, but in the field of architecture the former lagged a little behind. Until the end of the 13th century, the ancient church of Santa Reparata was the main church building in Florence, while competitors have long acquired new large cathedrals. Only in 1294, the architect Arnolfo di Cambio received the task from the Guild of Arts to build a new majestic church on the site of the old one (it is interesting that during the construction of the Duomo, the first church was kept outside its walls for a long time, in which worship continued). The architect made a lot of efforts to justify the trust of fellow citizens, and laid the foundation for the cathedral, 169 m long and 42 m wide at the crossroads. At the time of completion (in 1434), this building was the largest in Europe.

The triumphant completion of construction falls on the end of the 15th century, and until that time the cathedral had been decapitated for a long time. Repeatedly, the Signoria of the city announced a competition for the project of erecting a dome, but since the time of Emperor Hadrian and the architect Apollodorus of Damascus (118-128), not a single architect has been able to build a structure equal to the Roman Pantheon in terms of the diameter of the dome. Many projects were presented to the city fathers, but the most ingenious among them was the proposal of one contestant: to fill the inside of the cathedral with earth mixed with silver coins. The originality of the idea was that after the completion of the construction of the dome on earthen formwork, the townspeople should have been let into the building, who, in search of money, would take out all the earth from the cathedral.

The queue to enter the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore is huge, but for those who want to bypass it, there is a way. To do this, you need to find the entrance to the dome and the inscription Priority line - for 7 euros per person you go straight to the beginning of the queue to the dome, and then through a special entrance separately to the cathedral itself. 7 euros and you will not get sunstroke and save time to see something else in this beautiful city. The entrance fee to the cathedral is 8 euros. Cash desk only accepts cash

It is not known how long the competitions would have lasted, and how the construction of Santa Maria del Fiore would have ended, if in 1417 the representatives of the Opera del Duomo (the construction department of the cathedral) had not turned to the master Philippe Brunelleschi for advice. The architect not only agreed with all the fears of the builders, but additionally named many other difficulties that the main masters did not suspect. When the discouraged construction manager became convinced of the complete impossibility of ever erecting a grandiose dome, Philippe wittily remarked: “When everything is prepared, someone will certainly be found to erect a vault; since this building is sacred, then the Almighty Lord, for whom there is nothing the impossible will not leave us."

It was so pleasing to the Almighty that it was Philippe Brunelleschi who became the very person who was able to erect the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. Having begun his architectural activity by solving the most significant and difficult task facing the builders of his native Florence, the former jeweler destroyed medieval building dogmas and brought architecture to a new level of development. At first, Brunelleschi's ideas seemed fantastic to many, but the architect managed to convince his colleagues and the city authorities of Florence that he was right. He began the construction of the dome without any scaffolding, which made it possible to significantly save on funds and materials, while the dome was supposed to become not spherical, but lancet, elongated. The eight ribs of the dome took on the entire main load.

The construction of the dome with a diameter of 42 meters was mostly completed by 1436, at the same time (March 25) the consecration of the cathedral by Pope Eugene IV took place. In 1471, after the death of Philippe, the "final touch" was made - the lantern of the dome of the cathedral crowned the ball with a cross. The construction of the cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary with a Lily flower in her hand, cost Florence 18 million golden florins and lasted 175 years.

The significance of Brunelleschi's pioneering role for the new architecture cannot be overestimated. Dedicating his treatise on painting to the Florentine architect, Alberti says that this "...great structure, rising to heaven, so vast that it overshadows all the Tuscan peoples and erected without any help from scaffolding or bulky scaffolding, is a most skillful invention that is truly , if I only correctly judge, is as incredible in our time as, perhaps, it was unknown and inaccessible to the ancients.

Educational home

Filippo Brunelleschi became famous as a builder who erected a dome on the octagon of a medieval cathedral, thereby changing the silhouette of his native city. But the layout of Florence remained unchanged; still narrow streets encircled the grandiose volume of the Duomo, which, breaking out of its tenacious embrace, strove upward to the clear sky of Tuscany. And the new principles of humanism demanded not only new forms, but also a completely different, freer space.

As an architect-urban planner, Philippe first appears in the creation of an ensemble of the Orphanage (Ospedale degli Innocenti, an orphanage of the innocent), which is completely unusual for medieval architecture.

It must be said that the Florentine authorities used to take care of abandoned children and the sick. As early as the end of the 13th century, the General Council of the People in Florence ordered the largest industrial guilds to organize shelters for their illegitimate babies. For these purposes, existing hospitals were used, which combined the functions of a hospital, a hospice and an orphanage. The Ospedale degli Innocenti complex became a new type of institution - the Orphanage. Within its walls, foundlings were not only accepted and fed; orphans lived there until the age of 18 and left the gates of the orphanage, having received an education and a specialty.

In 1410, the wealthy merchant Francesco Datini da Prato bequeathed a significant amount specifically for the construction of the Orphanage, nine years later the Arte della Sete silk-weaving guild redeems a large plot of land from a private person near the Santissima Annunziata church and on August 17 of the same year begins construction work . Three people were elected to manage the construction, of which only Philippe Brunelleschi was the architect, two other respected citizens of Florence were to oversee the work and control costs.

Naturally, Philippa was entrusted with drafting the project, but, unfortunately, the master did not like to draw, although he received 15 fiorini for drawings for individual elements of the building, so now no one undertakes to say exactly what was done in this building according to Brunelleschi’s plan, what belongs to his followers, and what was distorted during the restoration. However, the overall design of the ensemble certainly belongs to the first architect of the Renaissance.

The composition of this complex complex, which combines residential, utility and religious premises, is built around the central courtyard. The courtyard is an integral part of the Italian residential buildings- was masterfully used by Brunelleschi to unite all the premises. The main façade of the building overlooking Piazza Santis sima Annunziata is decorated with a light and transparent loggia; the architect managed to give the ancient motif of the arched colonnade the appearance of a friendly, hospitable lobby.

By June 1427, a significant part of the ensemble had already been completed, but at that time the commission supervising the construction made a decision on a significant alteration of the Orphanage under construction. Insulted, Brunelleschi leaves the construction site, as he does not want to put up with ignorant proposals for a radical restructuring of the architectural complex he created, which is almost completed. The proud Florentine, as always, reacted sharply to another injustice, refusing further supervision of the construction of his offspring. However, it is known from documents that he was repeatedly approached for advice and consultation until 1445, when the Orphanage was solemnly opened. This event took place on January 25, and already on February 5, at eight o'clock in the evening, the first baby was brought to the porch of the new shelter - a girl who was named Agatha Smeralda at baptism.

The calm harmonious building of the Orphanage still attracts the attention of connoisseurs of beauty. The compositional concept, clearly reflecting the public purpose of the building, the simplicity of forms and the clarity of proportions make this firstborn of a new direction in architecture related to the architecture of ancient Greece. It is for this reason that Ospedale degli Innocenti is considered to be the first example of Renaissance architecture.

Pazzi Chapel

While considering the major works of maestro Brunelleschi, it would be unfair to ignore some of the master's works, small in size, but outstanding in value. Experts unanimously call the small Pazzi Chapel, a family chapel in the monastery of Santa Croce, the most characteristic of Brunelleschi and his most perfect work. As conceived by the architect, the courtyard of the monastery was to turn into an open-air church, and this small structure, commissioned by Brunelleschi by the Pazzi family, was to play the role of the main altar. Philippe's final plan was never to come true, but the master managed to achieve an amazing unity between the chapel and the monastery courtyard, emphasizing the independence of a small family chapel.

In this case, Brunelleschi acts not only as a master of a new direction, fluent in volume, but also as a designer who is able to competently organize the interior space. One of the achievements of Philippe in the field of interior, using the Pazzi Chapel as an example, should be considered the fact that he was able to achieve a completely unexpected impression with several tricks - the interior of the chapel seems much larger than it really is.

In the interior of the chapel, Brunelleschi uses a new technique to reveal the basis of the composition with the material and color of the order. When looking at the light, elegant decoration of the interior space of this building, it doesn’t even occur to me that just a few years ago, church buildings only suppressed and humiliated people who came to the temple, but here it became possible to communicate with God almost on an equal footing.

Simultaneously with the construction of the Duomo dome and the Orphanage, Brunelleschi rebuilt the old Basilica of San Lorenzo (the parish church of the Medici family), participated in the creation of projects for the Palazzo Parte Guelph and the Palazzo Pazzi, the Church of San Spirito and many others. Most of these projects were carried out after the death of the maestro by his students, but in all his works one can feel that indomitable spirit of an innovator-rebel, which allowed him to turn all existing ideas about architecture and offer the world a new human style of architecture.

It remains to add that, despite the fact that Maestro Brunelleschi quite often left his native city, most of his works are dedicated to Florence. This city was destined to become the "New Athens" and the "cradle of the Renaissance", so that the architect Filippo Brunelleschi can be considered a master who carved this cradle from stone.

* Pilaster - (from lat. Piles - pillar) - a flat vertical ledge of rectangular section on the surface of the wall. The pilaster has the same parts (stem, capital base) and proportions as the column.

Irina Nekhoroshkina. Italica No. 3 in 2000.

Name: Ospedale degli Innocenti (it), Ospedale degli Innocenti (en)

Location: Florence (Italy)

Creation: 1419 - 1444

Style: Renaissance

Architect(s) Story by: Filippo Brunelleschi

Object architecture

Source:
I.A. Bartenev "Architects of the Italian Renaissance"
1936; Publishing house: OGIZ

In parallel with the construction of the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, Brunelleschi worked on a number of other structures. His earliest and completely independent creation should be considered the house and loggias of the orphanage (or educational home) Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence. This building was begun on a model made by Brunelleschi in 1419, and completed by his student Francesco della Luna in 1445, that is, a year before the death of the author of the model.

In the architectural features of the shelter of Innocenti, the beginnings of stylistic provisions are visible, later developed by Brunelleschi and his school in a number of buildings.

Lightweight two-story straight facade. Thirteen rectangular windows with antique pediments above them cut through the smooth surface of the walls of the upper floor. A laconic, modest architrave separates the floors. The main central part of the lower floor is formed by a portico of ten elegant Corinthian columns with arches thrown between them, framed by a simple, light archivolt. Above the columns, between two adjacent arches, there are round medallions - a motif often used by Brunelleschi.

The introduction of such an arcade into the facade allowed the architect to significantly lighten the lower floor and achieve a certain sharpness of the composition. The upper floor was thus much heavier. In addition, it became possible to organize a kind of loggia behind the columns, raised several steps above the street. At the same time, the entrance doors were somewhat pushed back.

According to Brunelleschi's idea, the organization of such a wide "inviting" entrance revealed in the facade the very purpose of the building as a shelter for children, open "for all those in need."

Brunelleschi does not shrink, does not crush architectural masses. On the contrary, he generalizes them, aligns them.

When designing the facade, the architect also pursued the following goal: to give a fairly monumental, expressive frame to the small area on which the building faces, to spatially combine the proportions of the area with the proportions of the structure.

The plan of the house is carefully drawn, the interior spaces and courtyards - their mutual arrangement, their spatial connection - are thought out in detail by the architect and are in accordance with the facade organization.

This circumstance seems to be especially significant if we recall that at the highest stages of the development of the Renaissance, the problem of internal space and the rhythm of its individual elements began to play an extremely important role.

Considering the building of an orphanage in Florence as a whole, it should be noted that here Brunelleschi first solved the problem of building a building to which the requirements put forward by a new era, a new social structure were presented - a building with a large number of separate small rooms, mainly public and residential order, buildings, more than others close to the type of palaces-mansions.

Sources:

• General History of Architecture, Volume 5 Architecture Western Europe XV-XVI centuries Renaissance 1967, Moscow

The first monument of the new style and the earliest work of Brunelleschi in the field of civil engineering is the Educational House on Santissima Annunziata Square. At the first glance at this building, its essential and fundamental difference from the Gothic buildings is striking. The accentuated horizontality of the façade, the lower floor of which is occupied by a loggia opening onto the square with nine arches, the symmetry of the composition completed on the sides by two wider openings framed by pilasters – all evoke an impression of balance, harmony and peace. The clarity and simplicity of the compositional and spatial solution distinguishes the architecture of the courtyard of the building surrounded by a gallery. Brunelleschi created in the Orphanage (Ospedale degli Innocenti) a new type of civil architectural structure, uniting a large number of public or residential premises located along the perimeter of a square courtyard. The educational house was opened in 1445. It was built of brick, the walls and vaults were plastered. Columns, archivolts, interfloor rods and ornamentation are made of local limestone. Terracotta bas-reliefs depicting swaddled babies by Andrea della Robbia.

Rome. Tempietto

A small, beautifully proportioned, round in plan, temple in the courtyard of the church of San Pietro in Montorio - this is Tempietto. The centric building has 16 Roman Doric columns arranged in a circle, ending with an entablature and a balustrade. The building ends with a cylindrical drum crowned with a dome. Without any decorations, the facade is drawn in one piece, and the details of the temple are outlined clearly and strictly. Tempietto, the most mature of the centric works, served as an important step towards the project of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome.