Belpaese
Registered: June 2011
Posts: 1,367
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I think it's the most beautiful dome in the worls and its building history is simply extraordinary
From arch.mcgill.ca:
Architect, perspectivist, and sculptor. There’s not much information about Filippo Brunelleschi's career until 1418-20, when we he was engaged in various architectural projects for Florence: the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore, the Spedale degli Innocenti, and the churches of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito. In this period he painted, by the aid of a mirror, two panels showing the Baptistery and the Piazza della Signori perspective. These works - now lost - marked the birth of linear perspective. Also in the same years, Brunelleschi built mechanical clocks, of which only indirect accounts survive. His work as sculptor is better documented. In fact, it was back in a competence in 1401 that he competed unsuccessfully against Lorenzo Ghiberti for the construction of the second bronze door of the Florence Baptistery.
In 1418 Brunelleschi entered a new competition against Ghiberti to submit a model for the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi won the contest in 1420 with a proposal to erect the dome without wooden centering.
The construction of the dome began in the summer of 1420 and was finished by 1436. The lantern, designed by Brunelleschi, was completed after his death. The copper sphere was placed on the top by Verrocchio in 1472. The construction embodies a rigorously geometrical design.
The octagonal drum carries eight "shells." Empty spaces have been left inside each of these to lighten the massive structure. The angle ribs are not intended to provide structural support. Another notable feature is the external covering system, which consists of tiles specially designed for easy assembly and maintenance.
Dimensions and characteristics
The dome's springing point stands 177 feet above ground level, while its height from the drum base to the top is about 108 feet. The distance between two opposite edges of the exterior octagonal base is about 176 feet. The height of the lantern atop the dome is slightly more than 72 feet. The dome weighs an estimated 37,000 metric tons, and the number of bricks used in the structure may exceed four million.
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