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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 3
Lesson 2: Sculpture and architecture in central Italy- Brunelleschi & Ghiberti, the Sacrifice of Isaac
- Brunelleschi and Ghiberti, Sacrifice of Isaac (quiz)
- Ghiberti, "Gates of Paradise," east doors of the Florence Baptistery
- Brunelleschi, Old Sacristy
- Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence.
- Brunelleschi, Dome (quiz)
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito
- Nanni di Banco, Four Crowned Saints
- Orsanmichele and Donatello's Saint Mark
- Donatello, Saint Mark
- Donatello, St. Mark (quiz)
- A soldier saint in Renaissance Florence: Donatello's St George
- Donatello, Feast of Herod
- Donatello, Madonna of the Clouds
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David (quiz)
- Donatello, The Miracle of the Mule
- Donatello, Equestrian Monument of Gattamelata
- Donatello, Mary Magdalene
- Andrea della Robbia’s bambini at the Ospedale degli Innocenti, Florence
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
- Alberti, Sant'Andrea in Mantua
- Michelozzo, Palazzo Medici
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Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence.
Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence, 1420-36. Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- @"In the ancient world they dealt with this by building huge walls... but Brunelleschi couldn't do that so..." 1:45
Why couldn't he?(19 votes)- Because he was working with an existing building that was completed prior to the construction of the dome. He had to make do with what was already in place.(33 votes)
- how long did it take Brunilesskey to build this?
what's Gothic?(9 votes)- It took them 18 years (1418 to 1436) to construct the dome. Gothic is a style of Medieval art and architecture, it's quite distinctive, just search for "gothic architecture" on Google Images.(8 votes)
- What is the difference between the wooden framework that they couldn't use because the dome was too big and the wooden skeleton structure that Brunelleschi successfully used?(3 votes)
- Well the way this dome was designed, every layer they added made it stronger allowing it to support its self. This means he did not need as much wood and the wood could also be weaker.(2 votes)
- At, why is a part of the stone decoration directly beneath the dome missing? Did it fall off? When did that happen? 0:21(2 votes)
- The most common story (unknown if true) is that when Michelangelo saw this first section, he called it a "cricket cage." He said that the proportions were all wrong. And that, supposedly, brought an end to construction(4 votes)
- What ancient building was the dome modeled after?(3 votes)
- Where did the stones come from?(3 votes)
- The stone would have come from a quarry most likely with-in the provinance of Florence.(1 vote)
- What was used to make the cathedral/ how many tons of it?(1 vote)
- The cathedral is mostly stone, marble. The dome is made with stone and light-weight bricks (over four million). According to Wikipedia, the dome is 37,000 tons. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duomo_of_Florence#Dome(2 votes)
- So this was the first dome of his time period?(1 vote)
- Yes. That is why it was so had to build and design because they had nothing to refer to.(1 vote)
- This video best illustrates the shortcomings of this style, my favorite part is where they rattle off a list of inventions, oxen pulleys and other exotic devices and while they are naming all of these hard to imagine things we are left with a lock shot of the dome, now the imagery dances around a bit, kind of unnecessarily in other parts, but when it could be useful to show some the things that are being discussed most of the time we find ourselves instead looking at a still of the main topic. Why is this such a recurring theme in so many of these "Smart History" segments? Does it remind anyone else of the kind of content they used to have on the internet before the web was fast enough to support motion video? They would have a picture connected to an audio file, and you look at this one image while listening to what was being said, and I swear if that's not the format for much of this "Smart History" stuff. Am I the only one noticing this? I've not seen anyone else say anything so I thought maybe I should. Thanks, T.S.(1 vote)
- Might some of the stone (marble) come from the area around Carrara?(1 vote)
Video transcript
STEVEN ZUCKER:
We're in Florence. And we're standing
outside of the Duomo. BETH HARRIS: The
cathedral of Florence, and we're looking up
at Brunelleschi's dome. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's huge. Until St. Peter's, it
was the highest dome that had ever been raised. And in its width, it was
as wide as the Pantheon. BETH HARRIS: Almost. STEVEN ZUCKER: If you
think about the Duomo itself had been planned
in the 14th century. BETH HARRIS: The
plan was to build a dome that had a span nearly
equal to that of the Pantheon. STEVEN ZUCKER: And of
course, the Pantheon had been built in
the ancient world. And that technology
had largely been lost. BETH HARRIS: So
first and foremost, what Brunelleschi did was
an amazing engineering achievement. The challenge was
how to build a dome this wide without
wooden centering. Generally, when you
build an archway-- and the dome is
really just an arch-- STEVEN ZUCKER: In the round. BETH HARRIS: --in the round--
you put up a wooden framework. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
this is the wood to actually support
the dome until it can be locked in
place by the keystone. BETH HARRIS: Exactly. So you don't even
really need mortar to hold it together because
you've got the keystone. STEVEN ZUCKER: The problem
is that this was so big, they couldn't actually
get enough lumber, and lumber that was strong
enough, to hold the thing up until they could
lock it in place. BETH HARRIS: And
so there was no way to do wooden scaffolding
or centering to hold it up as it was being built. So how do you build this
dome that inclines inward and not have it fall down? STEVEN ZUCKER:
There's two problems. You've got that issue. And then you've got the problem
of it wanting to splay outward. BETH HARRIS: A dome exerts
pressure not only down, but down and out. And so one of the
biggest challenges is how to raise
the dome and deal with that downward
and outward pressure, not cracking the
walls underneath. STEVEN ZUCKER: Now,
in the ancient world, for the Pantheon, for example,
they had dealt with that by just creating sheer bulk. In other words, the walls
got to be 10 feet thick. BETH HARRIS: I think,
actually in the Pantheon, they're something like 20
feet thick of concrete. STEVEN ZUCKER: But Brunelleschi
couldn't do that here. So what he's done
instead is, first of all, he made the decision to make
the dome as light as possible. And that means that
it's basically hollow. It's a double shell. And within the
shell is a staircase that snakes around that allows
one to actually get to the top. And if you look, you can see
people just below the lantern, up at the top of the dome,
taking in the view of the city. BETH HARRIS: He
also created ribs. STEVEN ZUCKER: Which are doing
a lot of the weight bearing. BETH HARRIS: And then in between
each of the major ribs, which are visible on
the outside, there are two within
that we can't see. STEVEN ZUCKER: And those
are actually locked in place by a series of
horizontals, as well. So there's this whole
skeletal structure that's actually holding
this piece together. I think, most
importantly, he was able to develop a system where,
as the dome was being raised up, as each course of
stone and brick was added, it was actually locking
itself in place. And so it was self sustaining. BETH HARRIS: Another
way that Brunelleschi dealt with the downward
and outward thrust was to create chains
inside the dome made out of stone and wood, locked
together with iron, like a girdle, to
hold the dome in and to counter that
downward and outward thrust. STEVEN ZUCKER: You might think
of an old-fashioned wooden barrel that has a couple
of iron rings around it to help keep the wood together. BETH HARRIS:
Brunelleschi created cantilevered scaffolding. STEVEN ZUCKER: That could
rise as the building went up. BETH HARRIS: And so the
workmen had a place to work. Brunelleschi also built new
kinds of pulleys and hoists to bring up his heavy,
massive pieces of stone to the top of the dome. So he created this ox hoist,
just these remarkable machines that no one had
ever seen before. STEVEN ZUCKER: He actually
even designed a special barge to go down the Arno
to be able to bring the materials to
the city itself. If you think about the sheer
quantity of material that had to be imported, and
had to be hoisted up, and had to be put
in place, it is just this remarkable project. BETH HARRIS: Bricks that had
to be created, stone that had to be quarried and brought
here, platforms for the workmen to work on, machines
to hoist everything. And I think it was
Alberti who said something like, what Brunelleschi
did, he did without-- STEVEN ZUCKER:
--without a precedent. BETH HARRIS: Without having
any example to lean on. STEVEN ZUCKER: Utter invention. Now, we think that Brunelleschi
may have gone to Rome and may have studied
ancient architecture as well as sculpture there. But there is no precedent
in the ancient world, even, for what Brunelleschi
accomplished here. BETH HARRIS: Now, it's important
to say that the dome is not hemispherical, like the
dome on the Pantheon. STEVEN ZUCKER: It's
actually kind of tall. BETH HARRIS: Right. It's kind of pointed. In a way, it has more
of a Gothic shape than a classical shape. But in that way, it matches
the Gothic church itself. If you look closely, you
can see these exedrae, or blind tribunes,
that Brunelleschi added around the
outside of the dome. They actually look
very classical compared to the
Gothic church there. In fact, look like
Roman triumphal arches. So there's this curious
classical moment here in an otherwise
very Gothic church. STEVEN ZUCKER: And
it's a church that is not only Gothic, but
really referring back to the Tuscan
Romanesque tradition. Especially in terms of the
polychromy, the colored marbles, which Brunelleschi
also carries up into the barrel just below the dome itself. But ultimately, you've
got Brunelleschi, who, through his
engineering genius, is solving a problem the
Western tradition had never been capable of solving before. How does one span
this enormous space? And in order to do it, he's
surpassing the ancients that he's even here
paying reverence to.