HUMANISM and the CLASSICAL TRADITION

AP Art History
Filippo Brunelleschi. Santo Spirito (Florence) begun c. 1436
1. Brunelleschis mature style is best known from his last major commissionnamely, rebuilding the church of Santo Spirito, located to the south of the Arno River.
Although it was barely started before Brunelleschis death in 1446, both the plan and
the existing nave reveal his intentions. The plan is a unified Latin cross with a
symmetrical transept the same size and shape as the choir. Forty chapels along the
aisles continue at the sides of the transept and the far end of the choir. Had he lived,
Brunelleschi planned to repeat the chapels on the entrance wall, creating a unique
and unifying border of chapels around the entire structure (Adams, Italian
Renaissance 72-73).
2. As in the Hospital, Brunelleschi based the plan on the harmonious proportions of
the square. From the crossing, three arms of equal length extend- the choir and the
two arms of the transept. The fourth arm is the nave, which consists of two squares,
each the size of the square crossing. The height of the nave is twice its width. The
aisles are defined by square bays, the height of which is also twice their width (73).
Brunelleschi intended to convey a sense of dynamic tension between the flat wall
and the hemispherical planes of the repeated chapels. In the nave, as at San Lorenzo,
Corinthian columns with smooth shafts support round arches. Along the aisle walls,
engaged columns between each chapel echo those of the nave colonnade, thereby
creating a stronger plastic unity between wall and arcade than in either the hospital
of San Lorenzo. The last feature was new in its concretization of space, reflecting the
physical experience of the worshiper. As such, it corresponded to the Renaissance
conception of man in nature and his role as the measure of things(73-74).
3. The lower stories of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito are nave arcades supported on
monolithic Corinthian columns of great height, simplicity, and beauty. To achieve
greater height, Brunelleschi added impost blocks above the capitals composed of
squared sections of Corinthian entablature, including the cornice, between the capital
and the arch. The flat ceilings are supported on a clerestory wall that is unbroken
save for round-arched windows. The interior details are simple and light, with
delicate projections; the flat surfaces of the masonry are covered with stucco and
painted white, while the supporting elements are trim, including the columns, arches,
and entablature, are made of gray stone the Florentines call, appropriately, pietra
serena. The result is a cool, harmonious, and austere alternation of gray and white
that emphasizes the relationships between the parts of the structure. This new twotone system, devised by Brunelleschi, would be used to decorate the interiors of
Florentine churches and dwellings into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The
vaults of the side aisles have the pendentive domes of the Innocenti loggia, while the
ceilings of the nave are coffered and carved and gilded moldings and rosettes at San
Lorenzo and painted decoration in the cheaper ceiling at Santo Spirito (Hartt and
Wilkins 190, 192).
4. The square formed by the crossing (of nave and transept) provides the module on
which the church is basedIn elevation the height of the nave arcade is equal to the
height of the wall above. In short, the proportions are irreducibly simple- 1:1, 1:2
the emotional atmosphere is cool and rational, the space a place for contemplation
(Turner 76).
Filippo Brunelleschi. Pazzi Chapel (Santa Croce, Florence) begun c. 1440

1. Brunelleschis chapter house of Santa Croce was commissioned by the powerful

Pazzi family and is known as the Pazzi Chapel. Although the structure may have been
designed c. 1423-24, construction did not start until 1442 and it was only finished c.
1465. The portico itself is awkward, but the latest suggestion is that it follows
Brunelleschis design with the substitution of dome over the entrance, the raised
height of which led to the awkward, unfinished roof (Hartt and Wilkins 193). The
plan and interior represent an amplification and consolidation of the principles
announced earlier in Brunelleschis Sacristy of San Lorenzo; it is a rectangular
structure of three stories, the second containing the arches and pendentives that
support the third, a star-vaulted dome culminating in a lantern.
Here the
resemblance ceases. Probably because the Franciscan chapter of Santa Croce
required a large meeting space, the central square is extended on either side by half
a square. As a result, the building is twice as wide as it is deep; the center is roofed
by the twelve-ribbed dome, the sides by barrel vaults (194).
2. The side walls are articulated by Corinthian pilasters upholding a decorative arch
and embraced by the barrel vault; this, in turn, is supported by quarter-width
pilasters, the remained of which is folded onto the adjoining wall. The arched panels
on the back and side walls match the size and shape of the windows on the entrance
wall. The distance between the outer edge of a quarter-width plaster and the inner
edge of the next pilaster on the side walls is the basic module for the interior
articulation- but not for the total proportions- of the chapel. The module is clearly
indicated by the architects use of corbels, and thus the space between the inner
edges of the central pilasters is two modules wide. The area of the altar space is an
exact square, two modules wide and two deep. The height of the order from its base(
above the bench) to the top of the cornice is four modules; three and one-half. Each
shaft is three modules high and one-third module wide, each capital one-third module
high and one-half module wide at the abacus (194).
3. The proportions of the three stories- architectural order, arches, and dome- are
not identical, as they were in the San Lorenzo Sacristy. Here they diminish as they
rise. The amount by which these stories are decreased is in each case one-half
module. The result of this controlled diminution is that the Corinthian order, used
throughout the chapel, gains in importance and dominates the interior to an extent
impossible in the San Lorenzo Sacristy. As in Brunelleschis other works, the clear-cut
decorative details are set out in pietra serena against white stucco walls, vaults, and
dome. The only color is provided by the stained-glass window over the altar and the
glazed terra-cotta reliefs in the medallions- predominantly the sky blue of their
backgrounds- and by the Pazzi coat of arms in the pendentives (194).
4. At this juncture one might bear in mind the admonition of the contemporary
Florentine humanist Giannozzo Manetti, who stated in his book On the Dignity and
Excellency of Man that the truths of the Christian religion are as clear and selfevident as the axioms of mathematics. The rational, ordered clarity of Brunelleschis
religious buildings may disappoint those who, like Ruskin, the nineteenth-century
British critic, are fascinated by Gothic architectural idioms, which still epitomize the
sacred among Christian building types. Yet Brunelleschis churches are religious
structures of the highest order. The Florentine humanists thought that geometric
principles could unlock mysteries at the heart of the universe and reveal the
intentions of a God who was, if one only knew how to go about it, eminently
understandable and had created the universe for human enjoyment.
Alas,
Brunelleschis vision of architectural harmony and perfection, reflecting the order of
the cosmos, was doomed to incompletion (195).

5. In the Pazzi Chapel there are no mysterious depths or soaring heights, no sense of
the beyond. Space is precisely defined in cubes, half-cubes and hemispheres.
Horizontal and vertical axes are held in balance and the effect is supremely simple,
lucid and static. It is almost severely tectonic, a construct without any suggestions of
organic growth. Human figures in the glazed terracotta reliefs by Luca della Robbia
are confined within circles so that temporal life seems to be set in the pure and
eternal geometry of the spheres (Honour and Fleming 417). Renaissance churches
are sometimes thought to be unspiritual. But the attitude to Christianity which they
embodied was no less intensely devout for being predominantly cerebral. Divinity is
revealed in them by equilibrium and the harmonious relationship of the parts to one
another and to the whole- as in the human body, created by God in his own likenessrather than by mystery and aspiration towards the otherworldly. The Pazzi Chapel is
ascetic and spiritual in its renunciation of superfluous ornament and in its
concentration on the purity of geometrical volumes. Simple proportional
relationships, mathematically determined and emphasized by the articulation of the
walls and even the grid of the inlaid marble floor, have metaphysical significance,
relfecting the perfection of God and the divinely ordered cosmos. As one of
Brunelleschis Florentine contemporaries, Gianozzo Manetti (1396-1459), declared,
the truths of the Christian religion are as self-evident as the laws of mathematics
(418).
Brunelleschis Sources
1. The issue of Brunelleschis historical sources has been much debated by scholar.
The dome of Florence cathedral, for example, has been called both a revival of
Classical precedents and a continuation of Gothic vaulting, while the brick-work and
the use of the double-shell have been identified as Persian (Adams, Italian
Renaissance 75).
In the case of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the situation is
complicated by extensive restoration. On the one hand, the rotunda is strikingly
similar to ancient buildings that Brunelleschi would have seen in Rome. But it was
also reminiscent of Charlemagnes ninth-century palace chapel at Aachen, itself the
product of a Classical revival. In the Early Christian period, Byzantine churches
constructed on the plan of the Greek cross, such as San Vitale in Ravenna, were also
centralized. Some scholars believe that the oratorys plan was derived from circular
Gothic apses, which argues for medieval inspiration. It is likely, given the synthetic
genius of humanism and of Brunelleschi himself, that, as in his earlier buildings, he
combined various historical precedents to arrive at new architectural solutions (75).
2. The roots of Brunelleschis early architecture can be traced to Classical
precedents. Compared with the complexity of Abbot Sugers search for perfect
mathematical ratios based on musical harmonies, Brunelleschis concept of
architectural beauty lay in simpler ratios and shapes. He also preferred simple to
irrational numbers, and ratios of 1:2 and 1:3. Shapes such as the circle and the
square formed the basis of his building plans, and he constructed round, rather than
pointed, arches, which were supported by Classical columns rather than Gothic piers
(Adams, Art Across Time 486).
Works Cited:
Adams,LaurieSchneider.ArtAcrossTime.Boston:McGrawHill,1999.
Adams,LaurieSchneider.ItalianRenaissanceArt.Boulder:WestviewPress,2001.
Hartt,FrederickandDavidG.Wilkins.HistoryofItalianArt.5thed.NewYork:HarryN.Abrams,Inc.,
2003.

Honour,Hugh,andJohnFleming.TheVisualArts:AHistory.7thed.UpperSaddleRiver,NJ:Pearson
PrenticeHall,2005.
Turner,A.Richard.RenaissanceFlorence:TheInventionofaNewArt.NewYork:HarryN.Abrams,
1997.