FREE ESSAY ON THE DUOMO OF FLORENCE

THE DUOMO OF FLORENCE

In the Florence Cathedral, Florence, Italy, there is a cathedral church whose octagonal
dome, built without the aid of scaffolding, was considered the greatest engineering feat
of the early Renaissance. Dedicated to Santa Maria del Fiore, Our Lady of the Flower, it
is also known as the Duomo, after the Italian word for cathedral. Created by many great
Early Modern artists, this piece of architecture is a perfect example the Renaissance
style. We can come to a better understanding of why this is so by exploring what the
characteristics of the Renaissance "style".
To understand the properties of the Florence Cathedral that fit the Early Modern style, I
will begin with a description and its history. The cathedral's architectural style,
although greatly influenced by French Gothic elements remained distinctively Florentine,
especially the geometric patterns of red, green, and white marble on the building's
exterior. Construction of the cathedral began in 1294 on the site of a Christian church
founded in the 6th or 7th century and continued until 1436. Several celebrated Italian
architects were involved in the project, including Giotto, Arnolfo di Cambio, Andrea
Orcagna, and, most notably, Filippo Brunelleschi, who was responsible for designing and
building the dome. The cathedral's exterior is ornamented with sculpture and mosaics by
Italian artists Donatello, Nanni di Banco, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, among others. The
building's stained-glass windows are the work of the Italian architect and artist Lorenzo
Ghiberti, and the interior is decorated with sculpture and fresco paintings by several
Renaissance masters.
Construction of the campanile (bell tower), situated to the right of the entrance to the
Duomo, was begun by Giotto and completed according to his plans in 1359, after his death.
Nearly 278 ft high, the campanile is embellished with red, green, and white marble panels
of relief sculpture by Italian artists Andrea Pisano and Luca della Robbia, and niches
with sculpted figures by Donatello and other masters. Facing the cathedral and campanile
is a smaller, octagonal structure, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, noted for its
gilt-bronze doors, elaborately worked in high relief by Andrea Pisano and Lorenzo
Ghiberti.
With that background information about the cathedral, one question comes to mind: what is
it that makes the Renaissance style distinct? Renaissance Art is painting, sculpture, and
architecture produced in Europe in the historical period that has been called the Early
Modern period. Though the piece I selected is a piece of architecture it has all the
aforementioned forms of art, and the elements of the Renaissance style encompasses all
these forms. The three main components of Renaissance style are the following: a revival
of the classical style originally developed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, an
intensified concern with non-religious life, and an interest in humanism and emphasis on
the importance of the individual. The Renaissance period in art history corresponds to
the beginning of the great Western age of discovery and exploration, when a general
desire developed to examine all aspects of nature and the world. This greatly influenced
the art that was produced during this period.
During the Renaissance, artists were no longer regarded as mere artisans, as they had
been in the medieval past, but for the first time emerged as independent personalities,
comparable to poets and writers. When he was discussing architecture in his book Lives of
the Artists, Giorgio Vasari writes, "…some idea of form and some approximation of
the good ancient rules were rediscovered by the better architects, who have left examples
of their style throughout Italy in the oldest as distinct from the antique churches"
(Vasari, 39). They sought new solutions to formal and visual problems, and many of them
were also devoted to scientific experimentation. In this context, mathematical or linear
perspective was developed, a system in which all objects in a painting or in low-relief
sculpture are related both proportionally and rationally. As a result, the painted
surface was regarded as a window on the natural world, and it became the task of painters
to portray this world in their art. Consequently, painters began to devote themselves
more rigorously to the rendition of landscape—the careful depiction of trees,
flowers, plants, distant mountains, and cloud-filled skies. Artists studied the effect of
light out-of-doors and how the eye perceives all the diverse elements in nature. They
developed aerial perspective, in which objects become increasingly less distinct and less
sharply colored as they recede from the eye of the viewer.
Although the portrait also developed as a specific genre in the mid-15th century
Renaissance painters achieved the greatest notoriety with the history, or narrative,
picture, in which figures located within a landscape or an architectural environment act
out a specific story, taken either from classical mythology or Judeo-Christian tradition.
Within such a context, the painter was able to show men, women, and children in a full
range of postures and poses, as well as the subjects' diverse emotional reactions and
states.
The Renaissance of the arts coincided with the development of humanism, in which scholars
studied and translated philosophical texts. The use of classical Latin was revived and
often favored at this time. The Renaissance was also a period of avid exploration; sea
captains began to be more daring in seeking new routes to Asia, which resulted in the
discovery and eventual colonization of North and South America. Painters, sculptors, and
architects exhibited a similar sense of adventure and the desire for greater knowledge
and new solutions; Leonardo da Vinci, like Christopher Columbus, discovered whole new
worlds. With a new emphasis on the science, people like Philippo Brunelleschi were
accomplishing great feats of artistic and architectural design. The new Renaissance
"style" that emerged during this period called upon the classical roots of ancient Greece
and Rome but new scientific understanding and a stronger emphasis on the individual also
influenced the works created during this period. 
Bibliography
Rice Jr., Eugene F.; Anthony Grafton.
The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559.
W. W. Norton & Company.
New York, NY, 1993.
Helton, Tinsley.
World Book Encyclopedia, v16.
"Renaissance", pp. 222-224.
World Book-Childcraft International Inc.
Chicago, IL, 1979.
Vasari, Gorgio.
Lives of the Artists.
Penguin Books Ltd.
London, England, 1987.