The mad genius of Florence ~ Part II
The Duomo
In 1293 a notary named Ser Mino de Cantoribus suggested that the church of Santa Reparata be replaced by a much larger and magnificent cathedral to set Florence apart ... "so that the industry and power of man are unable to invent or ever attain again anything that is larger or more beautiful". The project was to build the greatest cathedral of its time; the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. To accomplish this, a death tax was applied to all last wills and testaments to go directly toward the costs of the building project. The design of the project was awarded to Arnolfo di Cambio, the brilliant and leading architect of his time. Cambio had already revolutionized the Franciscan basilica of Santa Croce and later in 1298 designed the Palazzo della Signoria. On September 8, 1296, Cambio laid the first stone and the project to build the grandest cathedral in the world began.
Cambio had designed the cathedral with three side naves that would meet in the vast chancel where the high altar would stand. From above this configuration would appear as a trefoil - a three petaled "flower". The cupola [dome] to cover this convergence was planned to have a diameter of 45.5 meters - the same size as the footprint of the Baptistery of San Giovanni. Despite his brilliance as an architect, Cambio failed to propose how this cupola could be constructed, nor how it would be centered [supported] while it was built. Further exacerbating the problem, Francesco Talenti - who took over the project in 1349, expanded the original design of the trefoil.
In 1409 the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore - guiding committee for the construction of the cathedral - began to investigate how to go about constructing the cupola atop the walls of the trefoil. One of the men consulted was Filippo Brunelleschi another was Lorenzo Ghiberti. Brunelleschi had the solution already worked out - to evenly distribute the massive weight of the future cupola, an eight sided tambour [drum] needed to be constructed atop the walls. To bring light into the area beneath the cupola but not compromise the tambour's ability to transfer the load evenly, Brunelleschi designed the tambour with one round window per face. But the fact that the Opera also consulted Ghiberti irked Brunelleschi; Ghiberti, in Brunelleschi's opinion, though a fine artist, was no architect and therefore had no business being consulted on the project. Brunelleschi, and many others, saw the Opera's catering to Ghiberti as misguided patronage of the artist simply because he won the competition for the Baptistery doors.
Over the next eight years as Brunelleschi's tambour was being constructed and the time approached to begin raising the cupola, architects calculated that if every tree in Tuscany were cut down, the resulting lumber would not be sufficient to center the dome during construction. The Opera cast about for solutions to the problem. One unique and monumental suggestion was that the church itself be filled with soil and seeded with gold coins. The needed scaffolding could then be erected on top of the tamped soil and the cupola built. Once the cupola was completed, all that was required was to announce that all who hauled away the soil could keep any gold coins they found.
Returning to Florence in 1417 and again in 1419, Brunelleschi joined the Opera and took great delight in pointing out the impossibility of every plan suggested. He claimed that only he knew how the dome could be constructed - and he could do it without centering. When asked how he could accomplish the task, Brunelleschi challenged the members of the Opera to balance an egg on its end. When they could not, Brunelleschi took the egg and struck it on the table so it broke, leaving a cupola shape sitting perfectly balanced on the table. The Opera scoffed at this simple solution, and demanded that Brunelleschi produce details on how the actual cupola would be constructed. Brunelleschi refused, still feeling the sting of being asked to share the stage in the Baptistery door commission - He suspected that if he revealed his knowledge, the Opera would include their favoured Ghiberti in the project. Brunelleschi was summarily thrown out of the meeting and ridiculed by the Opera as a mad man.
But in 1420, after exhausting all other avenues and responding to public opinion and lobbying by Cosimo de' Medici, the Opera called once more on Brunelleschi. After submitting a written proposal and showing the Opera a scale model, Brunelleschi was reluctantly given the position of provinsore - supervisor of the build. But to save face and continue to promote their favoured artist, the Opera also installed Ghiberti in an equal position. Then as an afterthought, they also installed Battista d' Antonio also as a provinsore. All were paid three Florin per month, with Battista being paid an extra twenty Soldi per day as recompense for his duties as a daily supervisor whereas Brunelleschi and Ghiberti could come and go as they pleased.
Despite having to share credit with an obvious political appointee as Ghiberti, Brunelleschi went to work on the cupola. Sharing his knowledge and genius with Battista, Brunelleschi oversaw the slow raising of the dome. Brunelleschi himself approved each shipment of bricks, oversaw their placement, trained the master craftsmen on new techniques. To reduce labour, he designed an ingenious lifting device that could raise massive weights with the power of one ox, and was geared to lift or lower with the ox only required to move in one direction. Brunelleschi also had the craftsmen's midday meal delivered to the rooftop to lessen time wasted and prevent fatigue from having them make the long descent and climb during the middle of the day. Brunelleschi also supplied the workers with watered wine to prevent drunkenness and injury.
Ghiberti meanwhile did nothing but boast of his equality to Brunelleschi on the project.
There came a time when the sides of the cupola had reached a height that they required two things to progress; The first was a series of cantilevered platforms would have to be designed and built so the masons could safely continue their work; The second was a series of chains had to be constructed and placed to support the inward curving sides of the cupola sections so they would not fall into the open tambour. Brunelleschi chose this moment to expose Ghiberti as the architectural fraud he believed him to be - He did this by staying home.
Sending word that he was ill, Brunelleschi relayed his regrets that he could not supervise and suggested Ghiberti to take over from him - he was a fellow provinsore after all. Ghiberti was panicked - He had taken no interest in learning the very real sciences of architecture and hadn't even made the climb to the roof top. Though he was a top notch artist when it came to casting and chasing bronze sculptures, when it came to the duomo, he was merely a figurehead. Ghiberti sent word to Brunelleschi, pleading with him to come back but Brunelleschi held out. Progress on the cupola ground to a halt.
Most Florentines were delighted by this drama being played out, and the supporters of both men became embroiled in heated debate. A master of not only architecture and perspective but also of human nature, Brunelleschi let the controversy build to a crescendo. On a day when the entire city was aware of the drama and interest was at its peak, he made his way to the cathedral, feigning weakness from his recent "illness". There he addressed the workers and craftsmen, the Opera members, the gathered public, his fellow provinsores - Ghiberti and Battista. He voiced his fear that his "illness" could return at any time - it could even strike down Ghiberti or Battista. From the Vita - "He proposed that for the good of the building, and inasmuch as the salary was divided, the day-to-day problems should also be divided so the work could go forward without interruption and damage. The principal and immediate requirements were the scaffolding and the program of building, and a chain to encircle the [inner] cupola.... Lorenzo could take charge and oversee whichever one of these he wished and he would take charge of the other. Therefore Lorenzo was forced to agree to this division. He chose to make the chain, hoping to do it correctly on the basis of the one in San Giovanni, since he had no knowledge of scaffolding: he did not know what had to be done or the extraordinary way in which it had to be constructed. When he said he wanted to take charge of the chain [Brunelleschi] exclaimed: Very well! And I will take charge of the scaffolding and the masonry work." Brunelleschi's trap was set - all of Florence would be watching the outcome.
Brunelleschi supervised and directed the building of the new scaffolding which satisfied the safety concerns of the craftsmen and workers and so the building of the cupola resumed. On the day Ghiberti's chain was completed and set in place, Brunelleschi and his men inspected it. All agreed that it was faulty and would not support the inward leaning dome as was intended. It would have to be removed, and a redesigned chain would have to be made to replace it. Brunelleschi took these findings to the Opera and proposed that the costs incurred for the useless chain made by Ghiberti could be offset by the salary of 36 Florin per year Ghiberti was receiving for doing nothing but slowing the progress of the cupola. The Opera challenged Brunelleschi to prove his claim that he could build the chain properly which he did immediately. The Opera them commissioned Brunelleschi to complete the cupola and all other aspects of the cathedral's construction alone. Brunelleschi was vindicated for the bronze door commission.
An interesting occurrence followed Brunelleschi's gambit; Taking a cue from Brunelleschi himself, the eight master bricklayers unionized and went on strike for higher wages believing that the cupola could not be built without their skills. Brunelleschi met with them and said; "For your own advantage and to the harm of the enterprise you have joined together, thinking that without you it could not be built. However, it cannot succeed except by the correct method. Consequently as I cannot have you, I will have it built by eight Lombards." True to his word, Brunelleschi hired and trained the eight Lombards in his techniques. The eight Florentine masons came to their senses and returned to the job.
On March 25, 1436, sixteen years after Brunelleschi began work on the cupola, the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was inaugurated. All told the cupola weighed 27,000 tons, and was constructed using 4 million red bricks laid out in a running herringbone pattern between seven marble ribs. Brunelleschi had built a structure unrivaled anywhere in the world - to the glory of God and Florence.
Brunelleschi's architectural accomplishments were astounding and many remain to this day as monuments to the Renascimento;
On April 16, 1446, at the age of 69 years, Filippo Brunelleschi, father of perspective, inventor, sculptor, mathematician, architect, and mentor, passed from this world. Florence mourned deeply the loss of this genius they once labeled a mad man. He was buried in his beloved Cathedral and the following inscription can still be found inside its entrance ...
Both the magnificent dome of this
famous church and many other devices,
invented by Filippo the architect,
bear witness to his superb skill.
Therefore, in tribute to his exceptional talents,
a grateful country that will always remember
buries him here in the soil below.
Sevrin de Savage
April 27, Anno Societatis XXXIX