THE STATUE
The Statue of Filippo Brunelleschi placed in front of the Palazzo dei Canonici. The statue shows Filippo Brunelleschi seated and about 50% bigger than normal.
"From 1826 to 1830 the architect Gaetano Baccani cut down old buildings and erected well aligned three large buildings for housing of the Canons. The central building, next to the square of the Chapter, was enriched with a balcony supported by four columns framing two niches with statues depicting the architects of the Cathedral by Arnolfo di Cambio and Filippo Brunelleschi , performed by Louis Pampaloni in 1830 . Under each monument is an inscription in Latin:
" Ille hic east Arnulphus
Here formam facere iussus
Aedis metropolitanae
Tanta former decree communis florentinorum
Magnificentia. Extruendae
Quantam nothing hominis
Superaret posset industry
Enormous civium Auso
Ob aciem minds. Ingentem
Parem if praebuit. "
" Philippum Brunelleschi filium
Vides Hospes
Hic ingenuity aequalibus praestitit
Bonis Artibus Multum profuit
Antiquae architecturae honorary restituivit
Eamque testitudine supergressus
Profiglavit invidiam
siblet Urbi Et gloriam
Peperit Magnam aeternamque »
"
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THE PERSON
"Filippo Brunelleschi (Italian: [fi'lippo brunel'leski]; 1377 – April 15, 1446) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for his development of linear perspective and for engineering the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also include other architectural works, sculpture, mathematics, engineering and even ship design. His principal surviving works are to be found in Florence, Italy.
Little is known about the early life of Brunelleschi, the only sources being Antonio Manetti and Giorgio Vasari. According to these sources, Filippo's father was Brunellesco di Lippo, a lawyer, and his mother was Giuliana Spini. Filippo was the middle of their three children. The young Filippo was given a literary and mathematical education intended to enable him to follow in the footsteps of his father, a civil servant. Being artistically inclined, however, Filippo enrolled in the Arte della Seta, the silk merchants' Guild, which also included goldsmiths, metalworkers, and bronze workers. He became a master goldsmith in 1398. It was thus not a coincidence that his first important building commission, the Ospedale degli Innocenti, came from the guild to which he belonged.
In 1401, Brunelleschi entered a competition to design a new set of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery. Seven competitors each produced a gilded bronze panel, depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac. Brunelleschi's entry, which, with that of Lorenzo Ghiberti, is one of only two to have survived, made reference to the Greco-Roman Boy with Thorn, whilst Ghiberti used a naked torso in the Classical style for his figure of Isaac. In 1403, Ghiberti was announced the victor, largely because of his superior technical skill: his panel showed a more sophisticated knowledge of bronze-casting being cast as a single piece. Brunelleschi's panel, by contrast, consisted of several pieces bolted to the back plate. Ghiberti went on to complete a second set of bronze doors for the baptistery, whose beauty Michelangelo extolled a hundred years later, saying "surely these must be the "Gates of Paradise"."
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