Alberti And Brunelleschi Essay

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Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti were two of the most famous and influential Florentine architects during the Early Renaissance. Brunelleschi pioneered the ideal look of Renaissance architecture and rediscovered the principles of linear perspective. Alberti on the other hand, is thought to be the first theorist of Humanist art and his approach to architecture taught other artist how building should be built, not how they were built. Although both had talents in various directions of art, their architecture is available for more personal stylistic analysis since the subject of each building is the building itself. While still in the early phase of his architectural career, Brunelleschi rediscovered the principles of linear-perspective construction known to the ancient Greeks and Romans. He then used this knowledge to employ mathematical perspective which helped to redefine Gothic and Romanesque space and establish new rules of proportioning and symmetry. Brunelleschi had understood the concept of a single vanishing point and that parallel lines drawn on the same plane appear to converge. He also understood the relationship between distance and the reduction…show more content…
Not only did he design and build this Florentine monument, he also engineered various construction aids specifically for this project. This work took up a great deal of Brunelleschi's life and the challenge to create the dome was enormous since no dome of that size had been built since antiquity. The structure rests on a drum rather than the roof itself and was built without scaffolding from the ground. The two shells of the dome are supported by ribbed reinforcements and are joined by horizontal and vertical struts through which the staircase weaves it's way to the top of the structure. The dome still dominates the skyline of Florence and is a lasting symbol of great

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