The feud that sparked the Renaissance : how Brunelleschi and Ghiberti changed the art world / Paul Robert Walker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Walker, Paul Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brunelleschi, Filippo, 1377-1446.

Brunelleschi, Filippo.

Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 1378-1455.

Ghiberti, Lorenzo.

Art--Competitions--Italy--Florence--History--15th century.

Art.

Artists--Italy--Florence--Biography.

Artists.

Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral : Florence, Italy).

Art, Renaissance--Italy--Florence.

Art, Renaissance.

Art--Competitions.

History.

Italy--Florence.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 269 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : William Morrow, [2002]

Summary:

The competition began with the creation of the doors for the church of St. John the Baptist. Lorenzo Ghiberti, a young, unknown, and inexperienced painter, produced an elegant panel cast almost entirely in a single sheet of bronze. Filippo Brunelleschi, a local goldsmith, designed a far more dramatic and expressive panel that also drew considerable attention. In the end, Ghiberti was chosen to make the doors. Brunelleschi took a path that led him to rediscover the laws of perspective and reinvent the role of the architect. Fifteen years later, the two artists faced off again in a contest to design the dome of the cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. After more than a century of planning and work, the enormous structure was nearing completion, yet a gaping hole lay awaiting the great cupola. It was to be the widest, heaviest, and highest dome ever constructed, and while no one doubted that it could be made, it was unsure who would rise to the challenge. This time, the wealthy patrons turned to Brunelleschi. His ingenious designs gained him the most important commission in the history of Florence, crowning the cathedral with a dome of such magnificence and beauty that it has become one of the most enduring symbols of the Renaissance. In this lush, imaginative history -- a fascinating true story of artistic genius and personal triumph -- Paul Robert Walker brings to life two talented, passionate artists and the competitive drive that united and divided them. As it illuminates the drama surrounding the birth of a new artistic vision, the story also explores the lives of other fascinating individuals from Donatello and Masaccio to Cosimo de' Medici and Leon Battista Alberti. The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance offers a glorious tour of fifteenth-century Florence, a bustling city on the verge of greatness, during a time of flourishing creativity.

Contents:

1. Plague of the Bianchi 1

2. Competition for the Doors 13

3. Beautiful Works 26

4. The Committee 37

5. Two Fathers 46

6. The Fat Woodworker 57

7. Speaking Statues 71

8. Ingenious Man 83

9. Competition for the Dome 95

10. The Art of Building 109

11. Excellent Master 124

12. Sonnet Wars 132

13. Big Thomas 140

14. The Catasto 153

15. Flood of Lucca 162

16. Bad Acts 171

17. All of Tuscany 181

18. Filippo Architetto 188

19. At the Mirror 199

20. I, Lorenzo 210.

Notes:

Indluces bibliographical references (pages [255]-259) and index.

ISBN:

0380977877

OCLC:

48649296