Panel: Adaptation & Influence | Q&A: Tues. April 12 @ 6pm

Key Buildings

Key Terms and Figures

The Italian Renaissance was one of the most culturally significant moments for the Western world. Alongside innovations in art and music came new forms of glorious architecture. Renaissance architecture revived aspects of Greek and Roman architecture, with many buildings possessing overt references to classical buildings such as the Athenian Parthenon and the Roman Pantheon. The rediscovery of the beauty and forms of classical western civilizations was a key theme throughout the Renaissance and it continues to play a large part in architectural design today. During the Renaissance, which began in Florence, many Florentine designs became widespread as the movement flourished. Prominent Florentine architects like Filippo Brunelleschi were especially renowned for their strong influence on Renaissance architecture. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as the Florence Cathedral, is perhaps the most well-known example of high Renaissance Florentine architecture. Santa Maria del Fiore inspired many Renaissance architects, but perhaps the most famous design that took inspiration from it was the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, designed by Michelangelo. His use of classical forms and motifs in new, subversive ways reflected his Mannerist tendencies and gave many of his works a sense of illusory, artificial beauty. For his dome of Saint Peter’s, Michelangelo mimicked elements of Brunelleschi’s dome because it provided a prototypical base for his Mannerist refashioning of classical Renaissance architecture.

While Brunelleschi did not design the entirety of Santa Maria del Fiore, he did design its famous dome. The building was begun by other architects in 1296 in Florence, Italy, and was built in the Italian Gothic style.

Brunelleschi’s dome was not completed until 1436 and was quickly recognized as one of the most magnificent pieces of Renaissance architecture. The dome sits on an octagonal, multi-colored brick drum base. Each side of the drum features a small oculus window, allowing light to pass through to the cathedral’s interior. From the drum, the dome rises upwards and its eight contrasting exterior ribs seem to reach towards the sky. The dome culminates in an ornate white lantern topped with a shining gold ball and cross. The lantern sits over the dome’s central oculus, which echoes the Roman Pantheon’s central window and allows light to illuminate the dome’s interior. The dome was built using interlocking brick and was noted at the time for its lack of supporting buttresses. In order to enhance the dome’s lightness and therefore its structural integrity, the dome is actually two pieces: an interior dome and exterior dome, with a hollow space between. This hollow dome design had been a common feature of Islamic domes and architectures for some time, but Brunelleschi’s dome was the first Renaissance structure and first building in Florence to feature a hollow dome. Its size and structural ingenuity quickly led to its enormous fame, and many similar domes were constructed over the course of the Renaissance and beyond.

The interior of Santa Maria del Fiore’s dome is no less striking, with its sprawling religious mural that seems to lead into the very heights of heaven. The interior is lit by the central oculus window at the dome’s top, as well as by the eight windows that sit in the dome’s supporting drum. Combined, the lighting and mural give the viewer a truly awe-inspiring view. The complexity of the dome’s mural contrasts with the simple lines of the dome’s interior. The interior of the dome is both grand and simple, creating a sense of natural beauty and harmony.

Another iconic Italian church, St. Peter’s Basilica is located in Rome and was completed roughly two hundred years after the Florence Cathedral. Many aspects of its design take inspiration from high Renaissance architecture, and the central dome echoes Brunelleschi’s design in many ways. The dome’s architect, Michelangelo, was renowned for his unique style, which took classical Renaissance standards and subtly subverted them to create a sense of uncannily perfect beauty. This reimagining of Renaissance designs later came to be known as Mannerism. Michelangelo’s dome rests on a sixteen-sided drum, which features a small rectangular window on each side. Pairs of classical Corinthian columns intersperse with the drum’s window and recall the grandeur of Ancient Roman times. The sixteen-sided dome features small dormer windows that stud the dome’s exterior, while its array of external ribs draw the viewer's eye towards the crowning lantern that is reminiscent of the Florence Cathedral’s lantern. The lantern features Cornithian columns that echo those on the dome’s drum and is topped with a gold ball and cross, just like the Florence Cathedral. While the Florence Cathedral’s ornamentation includes elements of Italian gothic design and stays true to Renaissance conventions, St. Peter’s plays with scale and grandeur though its use of immense proportions and Greek and Roman architectural motifs.

The interior of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica echoes many elements of Brunelleschi’s dome. It is illuminated with a central oculus and the drums’s ring of windows, allowing for the same lit-from-within effect as Brunelleschi’s dome. Similarly, the dome is heavily painted with religious figures, although the style is more geometric than the Florence Cathedral's dome. The dome also features sets of engaged Corinthian columns, geometric decorations that recall the coffers of the Pantheon’s dome, and an encircling cornice that frames the bottom of the dome. Each of the features recall Greek and Roman architecture, and demonstrate that while Michelangelo’s dome has many similarities to Brunelleschi’s dome, there are also quite a few stylistic differences.

As mentioned earlier, Brunelleschi’s dome became extremely famous for its innovative design and aesthetics. Its imposing size and shape echo the grandeur of many classical western buildings, yet also stands alone for its craftsmanship and refinement. Brunelleschi's architectural achievement is almost universally recognized and should not be underestimated: his “Florentine dome is both slightly greater in mean span than that of the Pantheon and, being carried at a considerable height on a relatively slender drum, called for a greater refinement in its structural design” (Mainstone). This passage emphasizes the extraordinary craftsmanship and strong structural design of the dome and demonstrates why “today, it still dominates the city skyline in a manner unequaled anywhere else and it remains the greatest masonry dome in existence” (Mainstone). However, it is to be noted that Brunelleschi’s innovation was primarily a structural one, which explains why its design went on to influence so many later structures. The dome’s design enabled large domes to be built without buttresses or internal scaffoldings, and therefore enabled later architects to achieve domes of enormous scale without the use of buttresses, which were not included in Italian Renaissance architectural standards.

Perhaps the most vital structural aspect of Brunelleschi’s dome is its double-shell dome. This technique had first been used in the Islamic world, but Brunellesci brought the technique to Florence. A double shell dome consists of “a lighter shell for the building's interior and a more durable shell for its exterior, with the entire space in between being hollow” (Grupico). This double-shell design is what made Brunelleschi's dome able to withstand immense downward pressure without the use of buttresses or other secondary supports. Because this design allowed for the creation of large, unsupported domes, once “Brunelleschi adopted this technique for the Florence Cathedral, it became standard for monumental domes in Europe, being adopted by Michelangelo for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, for example” (Grupico). It also mirrored many Renaissance ideals: it incorporated aspects of classical architecture, used ingenuity and scholarship to create an innovative structure, and fit the ideal aesthetics of Renaissance Italy. In fact, “Brunelleschi’s achievement was so woven into the newly emerging patterns of Renaissance thought that the full impact was both wide and profound” (Mainstone).

It is no surprise then, that when Michelangelo was tasked with designing a dome for the sprawling St. Peter’s Basilica in 1547, he looked to Brunelleschi's design for both structural and aesthetic inspiration. While it is commonly accepted that Brunelleschi’s dome influenced Michealangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s, “the Florentine cupola was Michelangelo’s point of departure to a much greater degree than has been generally assumed” (Saalman). In fact, throughout his design process for St. Peter’s dome, he used and gathered information about Brunelleschi's design. He even wrote a letter to his nephew, who lived in Florence, “asking for the ground-to-lantern and lantern-height dimensions of S. Maria del Fiore” (Saalman). Clearly, Michelangelo used many aspects of Brunelleschi’s design to inform his dome for St. Peter’s Basilica, yet there are also many clear stylistic differences. On first impression, for example, Michelangelo’s dome is more imposing: “with its paired columns at relatively shorter intervals, the St. Peter’s Drum has an incomparably greater sculptural intensity than that of [the] Florence [Cathedral]” (Saalman). Though Michelangelo took great inspiration from past architects, he was “always true to his own particular way of organizing and shaping mass and space,” ensuring that his works reflected his vision rather than reading as a copy of the ideas of past masters (Saalman).

Clearly, Michelangelo was not content with simply veering from classic architectural designs. Much of his architectural work explored key foundational motifs and design elements, particularly from the Italian Renaissance, but used these well-known motifs in new and daring ways. His design of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica “indicates that Michelangelo was interested in balance and contrast, not in continuity” (Saalman). Instead of simply trying to reuse past architectural designs, he was interested in how different aspects of established forms could be used to create enticing contrasts and precarious balances. As mentioned previously, this style of architecture and art came to be known as Mannerism, with Michelangelo recognized as one of the foremost Mannerist thinkers. With the invention of Mannerism, “classical forms came to be used in a spirit alien to them; each artist developing a highly personal style containing capricious, irrational, and anti-classical effects” (Smith). When assessing Michelangelo’s design of the dome of St. Peter’s and its relationship to Brunelleschi’s dome, understanding his “concept of imitation as a creative vehicle” is vital (Hemsoll). Whereas Brunelleschi’s symmetrical, balanced dome gives the viewer a feeling of comfortable beauty, Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s is almost uncanny in its grandeur.

Like Brunelleschi’s dome, it utilizes a double-shell design and features a crowning lantern, but Michelangelo plays with ornamentation and scale to create a sense of constructed beauty, rather than a feeling of natural grace. Michelangelo’s dome was “not based on fixed and limited [ideals] of normative beauty,” but rather on his Mannerist ideals (Hemsoll). This focus on Mannerism can be used to explain many of his design choices for St. Peter’s dome, from his “duplication of elements in the drum (eight to sixteen evolution)” to his “reduction of dome height (pointed to semicircular evolution)” ( Saalman). Mannerism “serves to denote the moment when the immanent forms of art lapse into the ornate, clever, or abnormal,” and Michelangelo’s dome uses the strong structural and cultural foundation of Brunelleschi’s dome as a foundation for his ornate, intellectual Mannerist tendencies (Delbeke). The main structural considerations and design elements are the same for both buildings, yet Michelangelo inserted anachronistic, conflicting motifs and reworked the scale of Brunelleschi’s design to create a dome that reflected his personal vision yet recognizably pulled from high renaissance forms like Brunelleschi’s famous dome.

While it is commonly accepted that Michelangelo’s dome was influenced by Brunelleschi’s dome, further research into how Mannerism influenced Michelangelo’s changes would provide further insight into Michelangelo’s philosophies and design intentions. Michelangelo was thought to be one of the first Mannerist artists and architects, so better understanding his design process and motivation will provide better insight into both the Mannerist style and his dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. Further research should also be conducted into the influences of Brunelleschi’s design, as it borrows heavily from the design of Islamic domes and could serve as a window into if and how Islamic architecture influenced Italian Renaissance architecture. Better understanding the basis of Brunelleschi's design would help researchers better understand Michelangelo’s dome. It would also provide further insight into other Renaissance domes, as Brunelleschi’s dome was highly influential. By conducting the further inquiry detailed above, researchers can better understand how and why Michelangelo’s dome was influenced by Brunelleschi, therefore improving the literature around two of the most important Italian Renaissance buildings.

Works Cited

Delbeke, Maarten. "Mannerism and Meaning in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture." The Journal of Architecture 15.3 (2010): 267-282.

Grupico, Theresa. "The Dome in Christian and Islamic Sacred Architecture." Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table. Forum on Public Policy, 2011.

Hemsoll, David. "Imitation as a Creative Vehicle in Michelangelo’s Art and Architecture." Architecture and Interpretation: Essays for Eric Fernie. Boydell Press, 2012. 221-241.

Mainstone, Rowland J. "Brunelleschi’s dome of S. Maria del Fiore and Some Related Structures." Transactions of the Newcomen Society 42.1 (1969): 107-126.

Saalman, Howard. "Michelangelo: S. Maria del Fiore and St. Peter's." The Art Bulletin 57.3 (1975): 374-409.

Smith, Bernard. "Mannerist Architecture and The Baroque." The University of Melbourne. 1966