Filippo Brunelleschi

Everyone knows Brunelleschi for his cathedral dome, symbol and pride of the Florentines. But there is a lot more to the story. If he had not preferred to practice architecture, Brunelleschi might have been equally renowned as a sculptor, painter or whatever else he set his hand to. One of the greatest of architects, the inventor of scientific perspective and much else, he is one of the founders of the Renaissance.

Filippo di Ser Brunellesco Lati (1377–1446) was the son of a minor Florentine official, and unlike most artists of the time he received a good classical and practical education. Like Botticelli, he started out as a goldsmith. In those early years he visited Rome with his good friend Donatello. Here he became infatuated with the ruins of classical architecture that lay all about; he started sketching them, and recorded his observations and measurements in cipher in his notebooks.