great a height, it was determined to reconstruct the two bronze doors of
the Church and Baptistery of S. Giovanni, since, from the death of
Andrea Pisano to that day, they had not had any masters capable of
executing them. This intention being, therefore, communicated to those
sculptors who were then in Tuscany, they were sent for, and each man was
given a provision and the space of a year to make one scene; and among
those called upon were Filippo and Donato, each of them being required
to make one scene by himself, in competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti,
Jacopo[17] della Fonte, Simone da Colle, Francesco di Valdambrina, and
Niccolo d'Arezzo. These scenes, being finished in the same year and
being brought together for comparison, were all most beautiful and
different one from the other; one was well designed and badly wrought,
as was that of Donato; another was very well designed and diligently
wrought, but the composition of the scene, with the gradual diminution
of the figures, was not good, as was the case with that of Jacopo della
Quercia; a third was poor in invention and in the figures, which was the
manner wherein Francesco di Valdambrina had executed his; and the worst
of all were those of Niccolo d'Arezzo and Simone da Colle. The best was
that of Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti, which had design, diligence,
invention, art, and the figures very well wrought. Nor was that of
Filippo much inferior, wherein he had represented Abraham
sacrificing Isaac; and in that scene a slave who is drawing a thorn
from his foot, while he is awaiting Abraham and the ass is browsing,
deserves no little praise.
[Footnote 17: _I.e._, Jacopo della Quercia.]
[Illustration: THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC
(_After_ Filippo Brunelleschi. _Florence: Bargello_)
_Anderson_]
The scenes, then, being exhibited, Filippo and Donato were not satisfied
with any save with that of Lorenzo, and they judged him to be better
qualified for that work than themselves and the others who had made the
other scenes. And so with good reasons they persuaded the Consuls to
allot the work to Lorenzo, showing that thus both the public and the
private interest would be best served; and this was indeed the true
goodness of friendship, excellence without envy, and a sound judgment in
the knowledge of their own selves, whereby they deserved more praise
than if they had executed the work to perfection. Happy spirits! who,
while they were assisting one another, took delight in praising the
labours of others. How unhappy are those of our own day, who, not sated
with injuring each other, burst with envy while rending others. The
Consuls besought Filippo to undertake the work in company with Lorenzo,
but he refused, being minded rather to be first in an art of his own
than an equal or a second in that work. Wherefore he presented the scene
that he had wrought in bronze to Cosimo de' Medici, who after a time had
it placed on the dossal of the altar in the old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo,
where it is to be found at present; and that of Donato was placed in the
Guild of the Exchange.
The commission being given to Lorenzo Ghiberti, Filippo and Donato, who
were together, resolved to depart from Florence in company and to live
for some years in Rome, to the end that Filippo might study architecture
and Donato sculpture; and this Filippo did from his desire to be
superior both to Lorenzo and to Donato, in proportion as architecture is
held to be more necessary for the practical needs of men than sculpture
and painting. After he had sold a little farm that he had at Settignano,
they departed from Florence and went to Rome, where, seeing the grandeur
of the buildings and the perfection of the fabrics of the temples,
Filippo would stand in a maze like a man out of his mind. And so, having
made arrangements for measuring the cornices and taking the ground-plans
of those buildings, he and Donato kept labouring continually, sparing
neither time nor expense. There was no place, either in Rome or in the
Campagna without, that they left unvisited, and nothing of the good that
they did not measure, if only they could find it. And since Filippo was
free from domestic cares, he gave himself over body and soul to his
studies, and took no thought for eating or sleeping, being intent on one
thing only--namely, architecture, which was now dead (I mean the good
ancient Orders, and not the barbarous German, which was much in use in
his time). And he had in his mind two vast conceptions, one being to
restore to light the good manner of architecture, since he believed that
if he could recover it he would leave behind no less a name for himself
than Cimabue and Giotto had done; and the other was to find a method, if
he could, of raising the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, the
difficulties of which were such that after the death of Arnolfo Lapi
there had been no one courageous enough to think of raising it without
vast expenditure for a wooden framework. Yet he did not impart this his
invention to Donato or to any living soul, nor did he rest in Rome till
he had considered all the difficulties connected with the Ritonda,
wondering how the vaulting was raised. He had noted and drawn all the
ancient vaults, and was for ever studying them; and if peradventure they
had found pieces of capitals, columns, cornices, and bases of buildings
buried underground, they would set to work and have them dug out, in
order to examine them thoroughly. Wherefore a rumour spread through
Rome, as they passed through the streets, going about carelessly
dressed, so that they were called the "treasure-seekers," people
believing that they were persons who studied geomancy in order to
discover treasure; and this was because they had one day found an
ancient earthenware vase full of medals. Filippo ran short of money and
contrived to make this good by setting jewels of price for certain
goldsmiths who were his friends; and thus he was left alone in Rome, for
Donato returned to Florence, while he, with greater industry and labour
than before, was for ever investigating the ruins of those buildings.
Nor did he rest until he had drawn every sort of building--round,
square, and octagonal temples, basilicas, aqueducts, baths, arches,
colossea, amphitheatres, and every temple built of bricks, from which
he copied the methods of binding and of clamping with ties, and also of
encircling vaults with them; and he noted the ways of making buildings
secure by binding the stones together, by iron bars, and by
dove-tailing; and, discovering a hole hollowed out under the middle of
each great stone, he found that this was meant to hold the iron
instrument, which is called by us the ulivella,[18] wherewith the stones
are drawn up; and this he reintroduced and brought into use afterwards.
He then distinguished the different Orders one from another--Doric,
Ionic, and Corinthian; and so zealous was his study that his intellect
became very well able to see Rome, in imagination, as she was when she
was not in ruins. In the year 1407 the air of that city gave Filippo a
slight indisposition, wherefore, being advised by his friends to try a
change of air, he returned to Florence. There many buildings had
suffered by reason of his absence; and for these, on his arrival, he
gave many designs and much advice.
[Footnote 18: This was probably something like the modern lewis.]
In the same year a congress of architects and engineers of the country
was summoned by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore and by the
Consuls of the Guild of Wool, to discuss methods for raising the cupola.
Among these appeared Filippo, giving it as his advice that it was
necessary, not to raise the fabric directly from the roof according to
the design of Arnolfo, but to make a frieze fifteen braccia in height,
with a large round window in the middle of each of its sides, since not
only would this take the weight off the supports of the tribunes, but it
would become easier to raise the cupola; and models were made in this
way, and were put into execution. Filippo, being restored to health
after some months, was standing one morning in the Piazza di S. Maria
del Fiore with Donato and other craftsmen, when they began to talk of
antiquities in connection with sculpture, and Donato related how, when
he was returning from Rome, he had made the journey through Orvieto, in
order to see that marble facade of the Duomo, a work greatly celebrated,
wrought by the hands of diverse masters and held to be something notable
in those times; and how, in passing afterwards by Cortona, he entered
the Pieve and saw a very beautiful ancient sarcophagus, whereon there
was a scene in marble--a rare thing then, when there had not been
unearthed that abundance which has been found in our own day. And as
Donato went on to describe the method that the master of that work had
used in its execution, and the finish that was to be seen therein,
together with the perfection and the excellence of the workmanship,
Filippo became fired with an ardent desire to see it, and went off on
foot just as he was, in his mantle, cap, and wooden shoes, without
saying where he was going, and allowed himself to be carried to Cortona
by the devotion and love that he bore to art. And having seen the
sarcophagus, and being pleased with it, he made a drawing of it with the
pen, and returned with that to Florence, without Donato or any other
person knowing that he had been away, for they thought he must have been
drawing or inventing something.
Having thus returned to Florence, he showed him the drawing of the
sarcophagus, which he had made with great patience, whereat Donato
marvelled not a little, seeing how much love Filippo bore to art. After
this he stayed many months in Florence, where he kept making models and
machines in secret, all for the work of the cupola, exchanging jokes the
while with his fellow-craftsmen--for it was then that he played the jest
of "the Fat Man and Matteo"--and going very often, for recreation, to
assist Lorenzo Ghiberti in polishing some part of his doors. But hearing
that there was some talk of providing engineers for the raising of the
cupola, and being taken one morning with the idea of returning to Rome,
he went there, thinking that he would be in greater repute and would be
more sought for from abroad than he would be if he stayed in Florence.
When he was in Rome, therefore, the work came to be considered, and so,
too, the great acuteness of his intellect, for he had shown in his
discourse such confidence and such courage as had not been found in the
other masters, who, together with the builders, were standing paralyzed
and helpless, thinking that no way of raising the cupola could ever be
found, nor beams to make a bridge strong enough to sustain the framework
and the weight of so great an edifice; and having determined to make an
end of the matter, they wrote to Filippo in Rome, praying him to come to
Florence. He, desiring nothing better, returned with great readiness;
and the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore and the Consuls of the
Guild of Wool, assembling on his arrival, explained to Filippo all the
difficulties, from the greatest to the smallest, which were being raised
by the masters, who were in his presence at the audience together with
them. Whereupon Filippo spoke these words: "My Lords the Wardens, there
is no doubt that great enterprises ever present difficulties in their
execution, and if any ever did so, this of yours presents them, and even
greater than perchance you are aware of, for the reason that I do not
know whether even the ancients ever raised a vault so tremendous as this
will be; and although I have often pondered over the framework necessary
both within and without, and how it may be possible to work at it
securely, I have never been able to come to any resolution, and I am
aghast no less at the breadth than at the height of the edifice, for the
reason that, if it could be made round, we might use the method used by
the Romans in raising the dome over the Pantheon in Rome, that is, the
Ritonda, whereas here we must follow the eight sides, and bind the
stones together with ties and by dove-tailing them, which will be
something very difficult. But remembering that this is a temple
consecrated to God and to the Virgin, I am confident, since this is
being done in memory of her, that she will not fail to infuse knowledge
where it is lacking, and to give strength, wisdom, and genius to him who
is to be the author of such a work. But how can I help you in this
matter, since the task is not mine? I tell you, indeed, that if the work
fell to me, I would have resolution and courage enough to find the
method whereby the vault might be raised without so many difficulties;
but as yet I have given no thought to it, and you would have me tell you
the method! And when at last your Lordships determine to have it raised,
you will be forced not only to make trial of me, for I do not think
myself able to be the sole adviser in so great a matter, but also to
spend money and to ordain that within a year and on a fixed day many
architects shall come to Florence, not merely Tuscans and Italians, but
Germans, French, and of every other nation; and to propose this work to
them, to the end that, after discussing and deciding among so many
masters, it may be begun, being entrusted to him who shall give the most
direct proof of ability or possess the best method and judgment for
such an undertaking. Nor could I give you other counsel or a better plan
than this."
The plan and the counsel of Filippo pleased the Consuls and the Wardens
of Works, but they would have liked him in the meanwhile to have made a
model and to have given thought to the matter. But he showed that he
cared nothing for it; nay, taking leave of them, he said that he had
received letters soliciting him to return to Rome. Whereupon the
Consuls, perceiving that their prayers and those of the Wardens did not
avail to detain him, caused many of his friends to entreat him; but
Filippo would not give way, and one morning (on May 26, 1417) the
Wardens decreed him a present of money, which is found entered to the
credit of Filippo in the books of the Office of Works; and all this was
to conciliate him. But he, steadfast in his resolution, took his
departure none the less from Florence and returned to Rome, where he
studied continuously for that undertaking, making arrangements and
preparing himself for the completion of the work, thinking, as was true,
that no other than himself could carry it out. And as for his counsel
that new architects should be summoned, Filippo had advanced it for no
other reason but that they might serve to prove the greatness of his own
intellect, and not because he thought that they would be able to vault
that tribune or to undertake such a charge, which was too difficult for
them. And thus much time was consumed before those architects arrived
from their countries, whom they had caused to be summoned from afar by
means of orders given to Florentine merchants who dwelt in France, in
Germany, in England, and in Spain, and who were commissioned to spend
any sum of money, if only they could obtain the most experienced and
able intellects that there were in those regions from the Princes of
those countries, and send them to Florence.
By the year 1420, all these ultramontane masters were finally assembled
in Florence, and likewise those of Tuscany and all the ingenious
craftsmen of design in Florence; and so Filippo returned from Rome. They
all assembled, therefore, in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore,
in the presence of the Consuls and of the Wardens, together with a
select body of the most ingenious citizens, to the end that these might
hear the mind of each master on the question and might decide on a
method of vaulting this tribune. Having called them, then, into the
audience, they heard the minds of all, one by one, and the plan that
each architect had devised for that work. And a fine thing it was to
hear their strange and diverse opinions about the matter, for the reason
that some said that piers must be built up from the level of the ground,
which should have the arches turned upon them and should uphold the
wooden bridges for sustaining the weight; others said that it was best
to make the cupola of sponge-stone, to the end that the weight might be
less; and many were agreed that a pier should be built in the centre,
and that the cupola should be raised in the shape of a pavilion, like
that of S. Giovanni in Florence. Nor were there wanting men who said
that it would have been a good thing to fill it with earth mingled with
small coins, to the end that, when it had been raised, anyone who wanted
some of that earth might be given leave to go and fetch it, and thus the
people would carry it away in a moment without any expense. Filippo
alone said that it could be raised without so much wood-work, without
piers, without earth, without so great expenditure on so many arches,
and very easily without any framework.
It appeared to the Consuls, who were expecting to hear of some beautiful
method, and to the Wardens of Works and to all those citizens, that
Filippo had talked like a fool; and deriding him with mocking laughter,
they turned away, bidding him talk of something else, seeing that this
was the plan of a madman, as he was. Whereupon Filippo, feeling himself
affronted, answered: "My Lords, rest assured that it is not possible to
raise the cupola in any other manner than this; and although you laugh
at me, you will recognize, unless you mean to be obstinate, that it
neither must nor can be done in any other way. And it is necessary, if
you wish to erect it in the way that I have thought of, that it should
be turned with the curve of a quarter-acute arch, and made double, one
vault within, and the other without, in such wise that a man may be able
to walk between the one and the other. And over the corners of the
angles of the eight sides the fabric must be bound together through its
thickness by dove-tailing the stones, and its sides, likewise, must be
girt round with oaken ties. And it is necessary to think of the lights,
the staircases, and the conduits whereby the rain-water may be able to
run off; and not one of you has remembered that you must provide for the
raising of scaffoldings within, when the mosaics come to be made,
together with an infinite number of difficulties. But I, who see the
vaulting raised, know that there is no other method and no other way of
raising it than this that I am describing." And growing heated as he
spoke, the more he sought to expound his conception, to the end that
they might understand it and believe in it, the greater grew their
doubts about his proposal, so that they believed in him less and less,
and held him to be an ass and a babbler. Whereupon, having been
dismissed several times and finally refusing to go, he was carried away
bodily from the audience by their servants, being thought to be wholly
mad; and this affront was the reason that Filippo could afterwards say
that he did not dare to pass through any part of the city, for fear lest
someone might say: "There goes that madman."
The Consuls remained in the Audience Chamber all confused, both by the
difficult methods of the original masters and by this last method of
Filippo's, which they thought absurd, for it appeared to them that he
would ruin the work in two ways: first, by making the vaulting double,
which would have made it enormous and unwieldy in weight; and secondly,
by making it without a framework. On the other hand, Filippo, who had
spent so many years in study in order to obtain the commission, knew not
what to do and was often tempted to leave Florence. However, wishing to
prevail, he was forced to arm himself with patience, having insight
enough to know that the brains of the men of that city did not abide
very firmly by any one resolution. Filippo could have shown a little
model that he had in his possession, but he did not wish to show it,
having recognized the small intelligence of the Consuls, the envy of the
craftsmen, and the instability of the citizens, who favoured now one and
now another, according as it pleased each man best; and I do not marvel
at this, since every man in that city professes to know as much in these
matters as the experienced masters know, although those who truly
understand them are but few; and let this be said without offence to
those who have the knowledge. What Filippo, therefore, had not been able
to achieve before the tribunal, he began to effect with individuals,
talking now to a Consul, now to a Warden, and likewise to many citizens;
and showing them part of his design, he induced them to determine to
allot this work either to him or to one of the foreigners. Wherefore the
Consuls, the Wardens of Works, and those citizens, regaining courage,
assembled together, and the architects disputed concerning this matter,
but all were overcome and conquered by Filippo with many arguments; and
here, so it is said, there arose the dispute about the egg, in the
following manner. They would have liked Filippo to speak his mind in
detail, and to show his model, as they had shown theirs; but this he
refused to do, proposing instead to those masters, both the foreign and
the native, that whosoever could make an egg stand upright on a flat
piece of marble should build the cupola, since thus each man's intellect
would be discerned. Taking an egg, therefore, all those masters sought
to make it stand upright, but not one could find the way. Whereupon
Filippo, being told to make it stand, took it graciously, and, giving
one end of it a blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand upright.
The craftsmen protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo
answered, laughing, that they could also have raised the cupola, if they
had seen the model or the design. And so it was resolved that he should
be commissioned to carry out this work, and he was told that he must
give fuller information about it to the Consuls and the Wardens of
Works.