Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

The lantern was a common fixture of many Renaissance domes, admitting light and air to the cathedral. During Brunelleschi’s time, however, there did not yet exist a fixed lantern design. As ever, the Opera del Duomo held a competition and invited people to submit designs for the lantern. Brunelleschi worked on his model with a carpenter named Antonio di Ciaccheri Manetti (no relation to his purported biographer, Antonio di Tuccio Manetti). They had worked together before, so Brunelleschi trusted the carpenter to build him a model of his design. Manetti betrayed Brunelleschi by also submitting his own model, one which “unscrupulously incorporated many features” (144) of Brunelleschi’s design. Brunelleschi’s design was chosen, though he was awarded the contract with a stipulation that he agree to “put aside all rancor remaining in him” (145) and accept several modification proposals. The reason for this was that Antonio Manetti wanted to submit a revised design, which incurred Brunelleschi’s ire. Brunelleschi wrote a series of insulting sonnets to his former collaborator, though these poems have been lost. Brunelleschi triumphed, but Manetti would eventually become the capomaestro of the project after Brunelleschi’s death.

Brunelleschi’s winning design for the lantern would become the template for future lanterns. It was also difficult to construct, requiring 1,000,000 lbs of stone to be lifted to the top of the cupola. Once again, a competition was held. Once again, Brunelleschi won. His design for a hoist was “ingenious” (146), including gears and a braking system that allowed the loads to be suspended in the middle of the air. The lantern was made from Carrara marble, but this time, Brunelleschi left the transportation of the marble to someone else. He did however design a crane that was used to move materials at the top of the dome. Not only did the lantern become the inspiration for many future lanterns, but it is also rumored to have been used in the creation of more accurate navigation tools that were eventually used by Christopher Columbus during his voyage to the New World.

The first stone of the lantern was consecrated in March 1446 by the Archbishop of Florence. A month later, Filippo Brunelleschi died. He was 69 years old and still lived in the same house in which he had grown up, so close to the cathedral. Buggiano was at his bedside. Meanwhile, Brunelleschi’s erstwhile rival Lorenzo Ghiberti lived until 1455. He died at the age of 77, a wealthy man and famous for the bronze panels which adorned two sets of doors of the Florence baptistry. At his death, Ghiberti was regarded as “the most influential sculptor of his age” (154-55).

In Florence, the people grieved Brunelleschi’s passing. Controversy arose over the site of his burial. His longstanding opponents argued against him being buried in the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral, but their complaints were ignored. Brunelleschi was laid to rest on May 15, 1446. Only Saint Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence, was also buried inside the cathedral. Brunelleschi’s tomb was only rediscovered in 1972. It has no grand monument, other than a simple marble slab and the inscription “here lies the body of the great ingenious man Filippo Brunelleschi of Florence” (156). In 1972, his remains were exhumed. He was revealed to have been a short man with an “above-average cranial capacity” (157).

Though his tributes may seem modest, there were remarkable in that—until this point—no European architect had been remembered so fondly. The great architects who preceded him were virtually anonymous. Among the many accomplishments of Filippo Brunelleschi was raising the appreciation and respect of architecture as an artform. In doing so, he became an almost mythic figure, to the point that Vasari credited him as “a genius sent from heaven to renew the moribund art of architecture, almost parallelling how Christ had come to earth to redeem mankind” (159). In Brunelleschi and his work, the people of the Renaissance had proof that they could match and even exceed the accomplishments of the ancient world.

After Brunelleschi’s death, the masons continued work on the lantern at the top of the cupola. Staircases were built which allowed them to ascend and descend in a safe and orderly fashion. These stairs are still used by tourists today as they climb the 463 steps to the summit of Brunelleschi’s dome. In doing so, they pass the interior of the dome, painted with a fresco by Vasari. This is one of the world’s largest frescos and is celebrated as a masterpiece in its own right. Brunelleschi planned for the fresco in advance, including structures and supports for the artists to access the ceiling.

The dome inspired artists who followed in Brunelleschi’s footsteps. Michelangelo, for example, visited the dome on numerous occasions when designing St. Peter’s church in the Vatican. His own creation did not exceed Brunelleschi’s dome in size. In fact, the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence remained the largest in the world until it was surpassed in the late 19th century by the wrought-iron and glass dome of London’s Royal Albert Hall. In the present, as in Brunelleschi’s time, the great dome imbues those beneath it with a “state of spiritual calm” (164). The structure has been damaged numerous times over the years, but has always been repaired. The city of Florence, noticing cracks in the walls, banned traffic from passing too close to the cathedral. In the 1970s, inspection of the earth beneath the cathedral also uncovered the existence of an underground river, meaning that the entire structure is built on unstable footing. The dome has featured in art and literature in the centuries since its construction. As much as it seems miraculous, the “fact that it is built by men […] only makes it more of a wonder” (167).