Filippo Brunelleschi Biography, Buildings and Best Books

Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) was a Florentine goldsmith, sculptor, engineer and architect, and one of the founding figures of the Italian Renaissance. He built the great dome of Florence Cathedral, still the largest masonry dome in the world, designed the Ospedale degli Innocenti, the basilicas of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito and the Pazzi Chapel, and is credited with the rediscovery of linear perspective.

Goldsmith and sculptor

Brunelleschi was born in Florence in 1377, the son of a notary, and trained as a goldsmith. In 1401 he competed with Lorenzo Ghiberti to design the bronze doors of the Florence Baptistery; Ghiberti won, and Brunelleschi turned increasingly to architecture, travelling to Rome to study the ruins of ancient buildings, reportedly with his friend Donatello.

Perspective and the Innocenti

Around 1415 Brunelleschi demonstrated the principles of linear perspective with painted panels of the Baptistery and the Palazzo Vecchio, a discovery that transformed Renaissance painting. His Ospedale degli Innocenti (begun 1419), a foundling hospital with a loggia of slender columns and round arches, is often considered the first Renaissance building.

The dome of Florence Cathedral

In 1418 the cathedral authorities held a competition for the dome over the unfinished crossing of Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi proposed to build it without wooden centring, using a double shell, herringbone brickwork and machines of his own invention. Construction began in 1420 and the dome was completed in 1436; the lantern was finished after his death.

San Lorenzo, Santo Spirito and the Pazzi Chapel

For the Medici and other Florentine families Brunelleschi designed the Old Sacristy and the basilica of San Lorenzo, the basilica of Santo Spirito and the Pazzi Chapel at Santa Croce, buildings of grey pietra serena and white plaster whose clear proportions defined the new architecture. He died in Florence in 1446 and was buried in the cathedral.