The Florence Cathedral was the major artistic obstacle of the day. Though the construction begun with a overly ambitious start in an attempt to build the largest and grandest cathedral in Christendom, the completion was put on hold, as the Cathedral had no roof, and the opening was much too large for architects to construct a standard dome. The ancient Roman technique of using timber frames and pouring concrete was implausible as there was not enough would and the recipe of strong concrete had been lost. This predicament led architects abandoning the building site. Thankfully, as mentioned in Room One, the rise of power of the Medici family brought with it a rise of progressive thinking, which spurred the ideas of new techniques among artists. One such case was that of an unconventional madman named Brunelleschi. His ideas were rejected by most in Florence, but Cosimo Medici welcomed his unorthodox techniques. Brunelleschi studied classical architecture and, under the command of the Medici family, started creating many imaginative classical looking creations in the city. Finally, Cosimo sent Brunelleschi to devise a solution to the problem of the grand cathedral. Using innovative new ideas, Brunelleschi created a structure that would influence the Western World forever. Fearing that his ideas would be stolen, he codified his ideas into complex symbols that would impede anyone from taking his creations. After Brunelleschi’s miraculous creation of the great Duomo, another mastermind came along. Alberti another classic Renaissance man who dedicated his life to decoding the mysteries of the natural world, took Brunelleschi’s ideas and systemized and decoded them. He developed complex theories concerning the creation of 3 dimensional objects on 2 dimensional planes such as canvas. These ideas influenced the way artists begun to use a more naturalistic approach to painting. Within this video, we will observe the theory of linear perspective put into action. First, Masaccio, a great painter who employed the rules of linear perspective in his painting. Second, We will look at how the discoveries of Brunelleschi and Alberti contributed to Florentine art and the humanistic turn towards naturalism and away from the old techniques of two-dimensional mosaics ideas of Constantinople.
