Brunelleschi's Dome: How a Renaissance Genius Reinvented Architecture

Brunelleschi’s Dome narrates the construction of the cupola of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral in Florence. The key to understanding this piece of architecture, King suggests, is understanding its creator. As such, the book examines the relationship between the historical construction of the dome and the legend of Brunelleschi which has emerged in the centuries since. The Brunelleschi of legend a is daring and ambitious figure who attempts—and achieves—something which many people believed to be impossible. This sense of wonder and awe can be found in the writings of men like Brunelleschi’s contemporary biographer Antonio Manetti and the painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, who lived a generation after Brunelleschi and painted the fresco on the interior of the dome. As well as being artists in their own right, these men penned important histories of Florence during a time when the city was the epicenter of the philosophical and artistic movement that would become known as the Renaissance. Brunelleschi is key to their portrayal of this time and place, and their accounts often verge on hagiography rather than history. Fittingly for a man buried beside a saint, they talk about Brunelleschi in reverential terms, praising his wondrous works and excluding his numerous mistakes.