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Brunelleschi, The Man and His Work - The Cupolla Part II

The cupola is large but the sense of size differs from that of the Gothic cathedral which from close up "ravishes", aspires, and from far off becomes an atmospheric mass and blends with nature. It is an exact dynamic form which from close up implicates and collects the forces and the viewpoints which converge on and depart from it; and from a distance, thanks to its outline and the solution of the relationship of white ribs - red webs, it maintains its capacity of measure and continuously constitutes a figure that can be perfectly identified and verified thus establishing a sense of proportion between the various elements seen.

As long as the cupola is visible, whatever the distance may be, it reproposes the same exact figure defined by lines and surfaces.The various phases of this extraordinary experience come alive in Manetti's biography, presented with an intensity that goes beyond the author's desire to create a myth, all the more significant in a writer who does all he can to define all biographical aspects in terms of humanistic canons:
Brunelleschi is in Florence (1417); he is called in by the Operai dell'Opera and explains his ideas for vaulting the cupola, amuses interest, but also many doubts;he then asks permission to leave Florence and returns to Rome and once more sets about studying the ways of vaulting of the ancients without bothering about expense having always in mind the building of the above named church in Florence";

in 1419 he is in Florence and is called in to take part in the Council for the cupola;he is the only one to maintain that it can be vaulted without centering and the discussion lasts several days;the Operai faced with his obstination in upholding an idea that seems absurd, have him taken out bodily several times, as if he were reasoning foolishly and his words were laughable he builds the Ridolfi chapel in S. Jacopo sopr’Arno to prove his technical thesis;

he prepares a program for the construction; he is nominated capomastro he accepts lower pay and the limit of the level of fourteen braccia (cubits) as trial just to put an end to the discussion and the opposition; he accepts dividing the commission with Lorenzo Ghiberti;he makes a wooden model of the cupola; he is called 'ghovernatore della cupola magiore" like Ghiberti; he alone is called "inventore vaulting is begun under his direction; fears and opposition increase; then feigning illness he displays the incompetence of Lorenzo and that his presence is indispensable; in this way he obtains a division of tasks between himself and Ghiberti; he builds new models;

he is always surrounded by onlookers and he complains, they play tricks on him; when the construction arrives at seven braccia he is commissioned to complete the entire cupola including the lantern; he is asked that each of the eight faces of the cupola be assigned to a "maestro di cazzuola"; he ends the strike of the workmen who refuse to be completely subordinate to him by showing that he is capable of continuing with new workers trained and directed by him; he invents various "provedimenti e industrie" for various problems in the construction (winds, earthquakes, the weight itself);

he continuously makes models of details with wet earth, with wax, with wood, or with large turnips cut with a knife and shows them to the workers; he takes care of the danger involved for the workers - "not so much the dangers but the fears and terrors of the masons and their helpers" - and "that there were vendors of wine and bread and cooks" on the cupola in construction to gain time; he personally chooses and controls all the materials and every detail;

the organization is by now perfect and the work is accomplished. Even this synthetic chronicle of how the cupola was made clearly reveals that Brunelleschi was no longer the architect delegated by or representative of the community but rather the interpreter who gives expression to the collective moment in his own personal vision.

The Cupola was inaugurated on March 25, 1436, to the four-voice motet Nuper rosarum flores by Guillaume Du Fay, who had come expressly from France for the occasion. While Brunelleschi was working on that extraordinary undertaking, other great early fifteenth-century artists were doing their part in bringing the cathedral square to completion, in line with the fourteenth-century concept of the piazza in which a series of symbolic decorative cycles were to visualize their rich culture for the people: themes from the Old and New Testaments on the doors of the Baptistery, in the niches of the bell tower and on Arnolfo's facade of the cathedral; reliefs with the Arts and Trades on the first tier of the Campanile.

Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Nanni di Bartolo, Niccolò Lamberti all played a role in completing and enhancing the complex. Ghiberti worked for more than a quarter of a century (1425-1452) on the doors of the Baptistery which Michelangelo says "were so beautiful that they would be fitting for the gates of Paradise".

In 1425 Masaccio frescoed the Crucifixion on the left wall in Santa Maria Novella, a mural in which the collaboration of Brunelleschi has been hypothesized in designing the architectural perspective. "But the most beautiful thing, apart from the figures", wrote Vasari, "is the barrel vaulted ceiling drawn in perspective, and divided into square compartments containing rosettes foreshortened and made to recede so skillfully that the wall seems to be hollowed out".

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