21/06/2022
When, mediante 1420, Filippo Brunelleschi was nominated superintendent of the construction of the cupola of the Florentine cathedral of Santa Maria del Culmine, the lines along which the construction was preciso be carried out had already been determined by what had been done previously (Arnolfo, Talenti)
The diameter of the inner span (m. ) is close preciso the maximum limit for any kind of masonry dome. From the times of the Pantheon there had been per niente examples of cupolas of such size. Faith mediante these structures had been seriously undermined by the collapse, con 1346, of the dome of Hagia Sophia per Constantinople. Con 1400 the Florentines had had puro reinforce the structures of the Baptistery which had shown signs of giving way.
Instead of recuperating precedent techniques, Brunelleschi invented per technique based on his knowledge of the “way of building” of the Romans as https://datingranking.net/it/adultfriendfinder-review/ well as medieval (eastern) examples which he put at the service of verso new concept and new kinds of technical, cultural, aesthetic problems, involved mediante the realization of the cupola. Basically the construction of the dome depended on the use of a building technique trapu of avoiding any dangerous discontinuity mediante the masonry (27,000 tons) and which would be able onesto circumvent the enormous problems involved con constructing verso traditional wooden armature of the necessary dimensions. Brunelleschi’s structure of bricks laid durante herringbone courses consisted of raising the wall in rings, each containing vertical elements for bonding the successive ring. The cupola was thus built as a self supporting growing form.
Sopra their internal tension, the thrust and dynamic form (pointed arch and elliptical sector) engender per calculated equilibrium, per cupola that hovers and is suspended over the city, the result of the balance of all the forces
The dome is surprisingly modern: mediante this double shell, the lighter exterior cupola protects the inner cupola from the elements, while the two work together thanks sicuro the powerful connecting ribs. The detachment from the figurative solutions of Gothic architecture is evident particularly on the outside in the refusal of multiple forces (free standing spires, etc.), sopra the rigor with which the convergence of the forces upwards is pursued, entrusting the formal solution to per formidable synthesis of continuous lines and accessory surfaces resulting sopra unity and free from any need esatto adapt esatto the more articulated and minute design of the structure underneath.
The first powerful expression of verso conscious synthesis of two cultural worlds, Greek and Gothic, the cupola can durante the end be defined as verso affective diaphragm stretched between an external and an internal space, verso diaphragm between one space and another. The city is giammai longer per framework marked by the emergence of vertical points of reference (towers and campanili): the cupola, per its size and form, stands out and dominates everything else. The towers and the campanili (including Giotto’s) all now relate puro each other as per result of their relationship to the cupola which hovers between rooftops and sky at the center of the urban system and automatically become subordinate elements con verso general plan.
The full meaning of this urban masterpiece, the cupola is beautifully expressed sopra Leon Battista Alberti’s splendid, synthetic definition per the context of the dedication of his treatise Della Saldo onesto Brunelleschi: “rising above the skies, ample to cover with its shadow all the Tuscan people”. “Rising above” on the one hand expresses the meaning of the tension con the generating line chosen for the ribs, on the other the fact that the cupola is not dominated by the universal space but creates verso space of its own which establishes all rapports and measures with respect onesto itself. “Ample” expresses the fundamental qualification of distension and circularity of the hovering cupola, while on the other hand with “ample to” it immediately leads to the concept con which the size of this urban structure is seen sopra relation puro the territory. Moreover, the contrast established between the two terms (“rising above” – “ample onesto”) expresses with marvelous conciseness the solution of all the forces, all the structures, all the equilibriums, of all the proportions both within itself and per relationship to the city, all the technical and structural problems, sopra the absolute abstraction and durante the tension of the line of its ciclocampestre section, etc. Lastly, Alberti’s words esaurimento the fact that the new formal dimensions also correspond onesto the new political dimension of the city.