living architect-ish style: Renaissance

As we learned from history or architecture, we learned that people always invented say a better living or provided more for human being to understand. For example in Gothic period, people were awe about this movement because it was lighter than Romanesque. It concerned about human being, how they could read architecture because at that time people were illiterate. They succeed on making their architecture where they concerned about people if we compared to classical architecture where they only say or built things for gods.

Then after Gothic, we have Renaissance where they learned from history, they learned from Romans and followed Gothic. When we talked about this period we cannot forget this man " FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI" the man who changed our perspective forever.

Although less well-known today than Leonardo's Canon of proportion and Michelangelo's David, Brunelleschi creation is a uniquely tangible expression of the Renaissance's celebration of the divine power of the individual. But Brunelleschi's genius didn't end with revolutionary design for the Florence Duomo. The engineering and construction of the dome, which was impossible in architecture history in the fifteenth-century. If we compare to technological at that time, it was equivalent of putting a man on the moon. And thanks to his insight into the lost classical wisdom of perspective and proportion not only facilitated a visual expression of the times' empowerment of the individual, but exerted an influence on all of the arts of the Renaissance that cannot be overstated.

Brunelleschi was a prototype of the ideal Renaissance man. Originally trained as a goldsmith, draftsman, and sculptor. He later travelled to Rome to immerse himself in classical art and architecture. He and his friend<Donatello> spent time in Rome during 1401-1420 studying PANTHEON and other ancient buildings. < At that time the Romans was so poor and the ruins that we saw today was more of the ruins than we see nowadays.> During this time Brunelleschi kept notes on his observation in a secret code that Ross King, author of "Brunelleschi's dome", compared to the mirror writing of Leonardo da Vinci.

The first hand exposure to Roman and Byzantine styles resulted in more than aesthetic influences. The resulted of this patient and obsession with his study he rediscovered and expand the classical systems of perspective and proportions. From these beginnings Brunelleschi nurtured the vision and learned the skills that enabled him to design and construct what would stand as the largest dome ever built for the next five centuries.

In 1428 a competition was launched to find a design for the dome of Florence Cathedral, which had been started in 1296 but remained unfinished. And Brunelleschi was entering this competition as well, he was no stranger to Florentine because years earlier he was in competition for creating bronze doors for the Baptistery in Florence but he lost to his all time rival Ghiberti. Most of competitors were proposing the traditional technique of centering but Brunelleschi proposed to eliminated the central support and use a double shell of herringbone brickwork to raise the dome through a mathematically precise balancing of opposing materials forces. however, at that people called him a madman and attacked him with all bad words.

After all, Brunelleschi fought until the judge understand his concept and he got the lead commission to built the cathedral with his enemies. he also designed the giant ship which was supposed to carried 100 tons of marbles to the site but it was failed. After that, he invented ox hoist, an ox driven machine using pulleys and tubs to heave building materials aloft. After all, hard working and his endless experiments, he finally finished his masterpiece " Santa Maria Del Fiore"

I personally, was stunned by this guy's patient and his dedication to what he was responsible as well as what he loves. As renowned architect Piero Sartogo mentioned that " The Greeks made monuments but did not create space, and the Romans created space with the arch and dome but relatively inefficiently but Brunelleschi showed, in an incredible way that less material could created more enclosure. He demonstrated that form is a structural elements."

However, Brunelleschi groundbreaking impact on our perception of space wasn't limited to his work in three dimensions; perhaps even more influential was his use of perspective to indicate three dimensions in a two dimensional format. Yeah! he was the one who invented "vanishing point". He also learned from others which were Florentine artists Cimabue and Giotto.

There are many things that i learned from this guy "Brunelleschi" who dedicated his life to what he loved and learned from history. He also went on deeper research and invented the machine that was so ahead of his time or imagination. The wisdom of learning and not giving up would be best to described this legendary.