The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance

by Walker, Paul R.

• ISBN13: 9780380807925
• ISBN10: 0380807920
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-12-01
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

A lively and intriguing tale of the competition between two artists, culminating in the construction of the Duomo in Florence, this is also the story of a city on the verge of greatness, and the dawn of the Renaissance, when everything artistic would change.Florence's Duomo - the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral - is one of the most enduring symbols of the Italian Renaissance, an equal in influence and fame to Leonardo and Michaelangelo's works. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the temperamental architect who rediscovered the techniques of mathematical perspective. He was the dome's 'inventor', whose secret methods for building remain a mystery as compelling to architects as Fermat's Last Theorem once was to mathematicians. Yet Brunelleschi didn't direct the construction of the dome alone. He was forced to share the commission with his arch-rival, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose 'Paradise Doors' are also masterworks. This is the story of these two men - a tale of artistic genius and individual triumph.

Author Biography

Paul Robert Walker has written twenty books on subjects ranging from the Italian Renaissance and the American West to folklore, baseball, and miracles. A former teacher and journalist, he lives in Escondido, California, with his wife and two children

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Plague of the Bianchi	p. 1
Competition for the Doors	p. 13
Beautiful Works	p. 26
The Committee	p. 37
Two Fathers	p. 46
The Fat Woodworker	p. 57
Speaking Statues	p. 71
Ingenious Man	p. 83
Competition for the Dome	p. 95
The Art of Building	p. 109
Excellent Master	p. 124
Sonnet Wars	p. 132
Big Thomas	p. 140
The Catasto	p. 153
Flood of Lucca	p. 162
Bad Acts	p. 171
All of Tuscany	p. 181
Filippo Architetto	p. 188
At the Mirror	p. 199
I, Lorenzo	p. 210
Epilogue	p. 219
Author's Note	p. 229
Source Notes	p. 233
Bibliography	p. 255
Index	p. 261
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