The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, also called Duomo, still dominates the rooftops of Florence. Brunelleschi definitively completed its construction during the 15th century, after 30 years of work. • LIST On January 20, 1817, Stendhal discovered Florence:“While descending the Apennines to arrive in Florence, my heart beat strongly. What childishness! Finally, at a bend in the road, my eye plunged into the plain, and I saw from afar, like a dark mass, Santa Maria del Fiore, and its famous dome, Brunelleschi's masterpiece. An emotion shared by all travelers and which, in the time of the architect, turned into immense pride. Art at the service of politics But, to evoke Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), it is necessary first of all to suggest the Italian context. Since the tumult of the Ciompi in 1378, the Republic of Florence has enjoyed relative civil peace. But the return of the Black Death, five times, reduced its population by half, dropping from at least 100,000 inhabitants to only 50,000. Despite everything, its industrial and commercial activity continues to enrich it. The city extended its territorial influence. She took over Pisa in 1406. Artists took advantage of this boom. The companies, the State multiply the orders. At the beginning of the 15th century, Florence was a wealthy city, whose political influence was growing. A boom that will very quickly be reflected in the many orders placed with artists. Brunelleschi is the same age as Lorenzo Ghiberti, and the eldest of three innovative artists, Fra Angelico, Donatello and Masaccio. To get to the heart of his work, we have an exceptional source:the Lives of the best painters, sculptors and architects , by Giorgio Vasari. The latter is the initiator of the history of art, and his work, published in 1550, has not ceased to be republished and commented on. Painter, architect, of a wide culture, Vasari had gathered a wealth of information. By mixing anecdotes and reflections, he gives us a very credible portrait of Brunelleschi. An architect trained in Rome From well-established parents in Florence, Brunelleschi showed an interest in the "mechanical arts" at a very young age. Registered with the Art of Silk, a corporation which also included goldsmiths, it is distinguished by delicate clockwork mechanisms. Then he turns to sculpture. In 1401, at the age of 24, he competed for the new bronze panels that would adorn one of the doors of the baptistery. He arrives tied with Ghiberti, but refuses to share the order and goes to Rome to study the antiques. “On arriving in Rome,” Vasari relates, “he was struck with amazement on seeing the grandeur of the ancient buildings and the perfection of their construction […]. As Filippo was little concerned with the needs of life, entirely devoted to study, he forgot to eat and sleep. » Returning to Florence, Brunelleschi devoted time to everything that could assist the profession of architect. He develops cranes, winches using endless screws, multiple and complex gears. At the same time, he was introduced to mathematics, in particular geometry, with the geographer Toscanelli. He does not imagine segmenting knowledge, partitioning it; on the contrary, he wants to involve them in carrying out his work. An attitude common to the Renaissance. According to him, the architect must combine intuition with calculation. But, unlike another Florentine, Leon Battista Alberti, who codified this approach in a doctrinal corpus (the De re ædificatoria , dated to the 1450s), Brunelleschi relied on a form of empiricism. The cupola challenge His great work was the completion of the Duomo, the immense cathedral of Florence. Opened in 1294, the site never ended, several times interrupted by the misfortunes of the weather and by technical obstacles. Arnolfo di Cambio had designed an original plan:a basilica with three naves and three polygonal apses, which were to fit like a trefoil around an octagonal choir. Giotto had taken care of the campanile, Francesco Talenti had extended the church even further. There remained the dome which, given the rest, must have been enormous:a challenge. Also read:The Sainte Chapelle:and there was light From 1409, the presence of Brunelleschi on the site is attested. But the master builder remains Lorenzo Ghiberti, who is better at sculpture than at architecture. In 1417 he won the competition organized by the factory of Santa Maria del Fiore and by the Art of Wool, which financed the operation. Consulted, Brunelleschi warned with these words attributed to him by Vasari:“Lords, it is beyond doubt that great things always encounter great difficulties in their execution […]. I do not know that the ancients ever executed a vault of such terrible grandeur as this will have. I have often thought of the means of arming the construction inside and outside […]. I admit it, if it were entrusted to me, I would feel the necessary courage to find the means to overcome it […]. But I haven't thought of anything yet. » The Duomo is finally completed In fact, Brunelleschi reserved himself. Returning to Rome to study ancient engineering again, he returned in 1420 to compete this time. The construction had not progressed. In order to build this ovoid cupola, he proposes a double wall, the whole having to be based on interior chainings. No scaffolding, no props, but all lifting gear available. The construction took 30 years, without serious problems, but punctuated by difficulties to be solved on the job. When Brunelleschi died, all that remained was to mount the enormous lantern for which he had left the procedure. Brunelleschi was not a simple imitator of ancient architecture, which he revered, but he used it to invent a new one, combining strength and knowledge. Brunelleschi was not the man of a single monument. He managed to carry out other projects at the same time, such as the redevelopment of the Medici Church, San Lorenzo, the arcades of the Hospital of the Innocents, the Basilica of Santo Spirito in Oltrarno (which he could not complete), and chapels. Cosmo the Elder and Luca Pitti asked him for palaces, which however did not end in their initial form. Brunelleschi's fame was such that he was demanded in Mantua or Milan, for works of fortification and even containment of the Po. Because, like Leonardo da Vinci later (and so many others), he called himself a military engineer and urban planner. As Vasari wrote:“His death was a universal mourning”; he had "deserved by his hard work an honorable name on this earth and a glorious place in heaven." In reality, Brunelleschi's role was fundamental. He was not an imitator of ancient architecture, which he revered, but he used it to invent a new one, combining strength and knowledge. His whole approach can be found in Palladio in Venice, in Bramante in Rome and, of course, in Michelangelo. Find out more • The Lives of the best painters, sculptors and architects, G. Vasari, Actes Sud, 2005 (reed.).• Florence and Tuscany, J.-J. Brégeon, PUF, 2011.• The Renaissance of architecture, from Brunelleschi to Palladio, B. Jestaz, Gallimard (Discoveries), 1995.• The Italian Annunciation, D. Arasse, Hazan, 2020. Perspective bursts the canvas The implementation of perspective, namely the representation of three-dimensional spaces on a two-dimensional surface, is not only a matter of knowledge or skill. It is also and above all a fact of culture. If we limit ourselves to early Christian and then Byzantine art, perspective had no role to play in compositions that glorified the figure of the Triune God to the detriment of other celestial figures, and even more of the faithful. In Italy, the transition to space-conscious painting is traditionally attributed to Cimabue , active from 1272 to 1302. The passing of the baton would have been the work of Giotto (c. 1266-1337), his junior by a generation, present in his studio. Aging is done with Masaccio (1401-c. 1428), who adhered perfectly to Brunelleschi's functional demonstrations of perspective applied to architecture. And it is still a Florentine artist, Antonio Averlino said the Filarète (1400-1469), who theorizes by comparing the eye to “a magnet attracting, like iron filings, the image of the object towards the intellect”. As for Alberti (1404-1472), he believes that “legitimate perspective” is applicable to any composition. She triumphs with Piero della Francesca (v. 1416-1492) who, trained in Florence, imposes it in his frescoes in Arezzo, Rimini, or Urbino. However, codifying perspective and then applying it rigidly risked becoming a dead end. In the XVI th century, Leonardo da Vinci , then the Mannerists and Caravaggio impose on it accommodations, distortions that make it even more operative.
