Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Engineering the Duomo
The dome crowning Florence's cathedral is impressive, but to appreciate
just how amazing an accomplishment it was in the 15th century, consider
that nothing even remotely its size had been constructed since the
Pantheon in Rome 1,300 years before.
Because massive construction projects like the Duomo typically took
over 100 years to complete, city planners assumed somebody would figure
out how to cover the church by the time they finished construction in the
late 1380s. That didn't happen, though, and the church remained open to
the elements for two generations.
Enter frustrated sculptor Filippo Brunelleschi. After losing to Ghiberti
in the contest to design the church's Baptistery doors in 1401 (p. 120),
Brunelleschi took his tools and went to Rome to study classical architec-
ture. He knew of the construction challenges of the dome, so he measured,
poked, and peered at the Pantheon, studying it for several years, trying to
figure out the mysteries of its design.
The challenge of the dome was this: For hundreds of years, arches had
been constructed by placing stones on wooden frames, and then removing
the frame when the stones were able to support each other. For larger con-
structions (Gothic cathedrals in France, for example), “flying buttresses”
were added for support.
The Duomo in Florence did not have the space around it to allow for
buttresses. And even if that problem had been solved, nobody could imag-
ine building a wood frame tall enough to support the dome-in-progress.
The wood would have sagged under the pressure even if the heights could
have been reached.
Brunelleschi came up with a three-part solution. First: He made the
dome with two concentric shells that supported each other, each thinner
than would have been necessary for a single dome. Second, he created a
puzzle-piece set of bricks, thicker at the bottom of the dome, hollow at
the top, fitting them all together in a self-supporting matrix. And, finally,
he added giant hoops around each level, like a barrel, to deal with the out-
ward pressure of the bricks.
It worked, and many years after the humiliation of the Baptistery con-
test, Brunelleschi had his hometown victory. The Pope came to consecrate
the capping of the dome in 1436. To this day, nobody has built a bigger
dome out of stone.
Not bad for a second-place sculptor.
The museum is also notable for its magnificent sculptures, including three
standouts: a disturbing but beautiful wooden sculpture of the Virgin Mary by
Donatello (depicting her torn with grief ); Donatello's and Luca della Robia's mar-
ble choirs from the 1430s; and the final
Pietà
that an 80-year-old Michelangelo
