“The Architecture of the Renaissance in Florence.”
After the “black death,” the least affected and accumulated power became the noble families, the strongest of which was the Medici family, which became the political head of Florence and established a hereditary line of rulers spanning centuries.
The Medici were patrons and commissioned works from many famous artists, which, in turn, stimulated one of the largest artistic movements in history – the Renaissance.
Many of the earliest examples of Renaissance style were built by Florentine artists starting from the 15th century.
Early Renaissance artists began to emerge, such as Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378–1455), Donatello (1386–1466), and Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446). In 1487, ancient texts by Vitruvius were among the first printed books and were responsible for the revival of the classical style – architecture became more than a continuation of the practical tradition passed through masonry lodges and acquired dimensionality as a literary idea.
The Renaissance style emphasized symmetry, proportions, and geometry and was inspired by the orderly arrangement of columns, pilasters, lintels, and semicircular arches observed in Roman buildings, which replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular facades of medieval buildings.
A fine example of early Renaissance architecture in Florence is the Dome of the Florence Cathedral, built by Filippo Brunelleschi.
He used a Gothic pointed cross-section of the arch instead of a semicircular one and reduced the self-weight by creating a double-shell structure similar to the Pantheon, placing the dome at the highest point in the historical center of the city.
Today, the Florence Cathedral is surrounded by the Piazza del Duomo, one of the busiest public places in the city. The cathedral is so important and influential that it was one of the first buildings included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982, along with the rest of the historical center of Florence.
In the 1500s, the Renaissance reached its peak.
Legendary artists such as Michelangelo (1475–1564), Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), and Raphael (1483–1520) began receiving commissions from wealthy patrons in Florence.
You will be able to familiarize yourself not only with the main elements of Renaissance architecture, through examples of the city’s palaces and churches, but also with the architects of these magnificent works.
