Filippo Brunelleschi's Influence: The Renaissance And The Renaissance

Known as the Renaissance, the period immediately following the Middle Ages in Europe saw a great revival of interest in the classical learning and values of ancient Greece and Rome. Against a backdrop of political stability and growing prosperity, the development of new technologies including the printing press, a new system of astronomy and the discovery and exploration of new continents was accompanied by a flowering of philosophy, literature and especially art. The style of painting, sculpture and decorative arts identified with the Renaissance emerged in Italy in the late 14th century; it reached its zenith in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, in the work of Italian masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. In addition

His major work is the dome of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence (1420–36), constructed with the aid of machines that Brunelleschi invented expressly for the project. Most of what is known about Brunelleschi’s life and career is based on a biography written in the 1480s by an admiring younger contemporary identified as Antonio di Tuccio Manetti. By the early 1420s Brunelleschi was the most prominent architect in Florence. At this time the powerful and influential Medici family commissioned him to design the sacristy of San Lorenzo (known as the Old Sacristy, to distinguish it from Michelangelo’s “new” 16th-century sacristy in the same church) and the Basilica of San Lorenzo itself. Work was begun in 1421. The sacristy was completed (without its decoration) by 1428. Construction on the basilica was halted at that time but began again in 1441 and lasted into the 1460s. The San Lorenzo structures are considered keystones of the early Renaissance architectural style. In form the church did not depart from the traditional basilican church with nave (central aisle), side aisles, and apse (a semicircular projection at the end of the nave). What Brunelleschi added to the conventional format was a new vocabulary using his own interpretation of antique designs for the capitals,

The last name Cassai most likely comes from his grandfather and great-uncle who were cabinet makers, casse in Italian, hence his last name Cassai. It was first thought that Masaccio was an apprentice to Masolino but it is more likely that Masaccio gained entrance to the painter 's guild before collaborating with Masolino and therefore could not have been his apprentice.Masaccio 's talent was well recognized from an early age by the painting community and the two painters probably worked together from a mutual contract and for artistic ends.In Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, commissioned for the Sant Ambrogio church in Florence, Masaccio 's soft and graceful style can be seen in the images of the Virgin and Child on a throne. These characters contrast with the heavier image of Saint Anne which characterizes Masolino 's style. This suggests that Masaccio indeed had a great part in the painting as he depicted the more important figures.The painting San Giovenale Triptych, is thought to have been created by Masaccio between 1420-21. It was discovered recently in 1961 and resides in a chapel on a hill sitting right above his home town. If it is indeed Masaccio 's first painting it would certainly precede Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. While living in Florence, it