| Another of the seven most famous churches in Christendom is the Chiesa di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, which in common Florentine parlance is usually given the simpler name Il Duomo, "The Cathedral." The architect Arnolfo da Cambio began construction of this church in the year 1296, but it was not completed until 1471. The building of most of Europe's great cathedrals extended over centuries of time. Many of the technical architectural principles that were first proven to be practicable in these great religious structures have gone on to become conceptual cornerstones of later secular architecture down to and including the present day. |
 A rooftop view of Il Duomo on a hazy summer day |
After the death of Arnolfo da Cambio (1240?-1302),
architectural responsibility for the still unfinished
Duomo in Florence passed to the artist Giotto di Bondone
(1266-1336), who lavished all his effort on the design,
building, and decoration of the campanile (bell
tower), seen at the extreme left of the picture on the
left.
The next architect was Francesco Talenti, who enlarged the design of the cathedral to make it one of the biggest buildings in 14th-century Europe, but the octagonal masonry "drum" upon which a great cupola was to be erected and the octagon's buttressing apses were not finished until 1420, at which time none of the project's own architects knew how to proceed with construction of the intended cupola. |
Brunelleschi's Cupola |
However, a Florentine sculptor and goldsmith of the time who was reputed to have made a mathematical study of ancient Roman monuments, one Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446), put forward a novel plan not only to raise a breathtakingly high cupola, but also to do it without benefit of temporary supports or scaffolding. Many expected that the entire mass of his proposed superstructure would come crashing down even as it was being built, and that the supporting octagonal "drum" beneath it would also be destroyed in the smash. Brunelleschi's design and execution both succeeded perfectly however, and his structure, raised in the second quarter of the 15th century, is what one sees atop Il Duomo today. When, more than a century later, Michelangelo Buonarroti as architect of the Church of St. Peter in Rome undertook to construct a cupola of nearly the same size there, it was his Florentine predecessor Brunelleschi's example that gave Michelangelo his model and the assurance that such a structure was feasible. |
Il Batistèro |
Another, very much smaller, and much older church
stands opposite Il Duomo. Consecrated to St. John Baptist,
it is called simply Il Batistèro, The Baptistry.
It is octagonal; its construction began in the
5th century, and it was completed in the 11th century; its
small size was a main reason for the later building of Il
Duomo next to it. Nescient visitors sometimes mistake the
Baptistry for an afterthought or annex to Il Duomo. |
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For almost three hundred years after its original,
incomplete western façade was deemed unworthy of
completion and demolished in 1587/8, Il Duomo had no
decorative facing at all on its west elevation.
Then, between 1881-1887, Emilio de Fabris constructed
the present polychrome marble façade (left).
Although art critics and architectural historians ever
since it was erected have roundly criticized it as a mere
uninspired academic imitation of 14th-century style, the
new 19th-century west façade has nevertheless been
graciously accepted by most who see it as a harmonious and
necessary finishing touch to the mostly older and more
distinguished entirety of La Chiesa di Santa Maria del
Fiore.
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Examples of Architecture for Access to Allodynes . . . |
