The Renaissance: Filippo Brunelleschi

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Renaissance architecture is said to of begun in Florence, Italy, during the 14th century, and ultimately spreading throughout western Europe by the end of the 16th century. The Renaissance is a revival of Classical arts, forms, and high cultures; primarily Greek and Roman. The Renaissance culture moved away from medieval and gothic attitudes, developing, and focusing on humanism. Filippo Brunelleschi is often labelled as the first architect of The Renaissance, and re-discovered ideas of perspective well noted in the Classical periods. This knowledge was lost in the middle ages, as Gothic architecture focused on the cosmos, rather than humanism.
Brunelleschi, in the eyes of contemporaries, was the man who restored the lost art of building
It was designed and built using a proportional system and constructional principles that defined space. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a Roman architect and engineer, and anthropomorphically defined proportions of the column; the base is the foot, the shaft the trunk, the capital the head. All classical architecture thereby can be assorted into anthropometric categories. It is evident in the Ospedale that Brunelleschi re-discovered the works of Vitruvius and applied this knowledge. The original design of the building was symmetrical, although many documentations are missing and there are several aspects of the Ospedale that remain unclear to this day. Nonetheless, it is known that in 1430 Manetti built an addition to the right of pilasters, and a vertical section of architrave. This destroyed the symmetry of the building, and was highly criticised by Brunelleschi. The Ospedale was not just a marker of early Renaissance, but emitted humanism through its anthropometric structure, design, and primary function of providing care to infants and
He often published works on painting, sculpture, and architecture, establishing guidelines for all subjects. One of his more notable works was the Palazzo Rucelai, Florence, 1446. He applied a classical order façade to the Palazzo over five years, disassociating it from the middle ages and causing it to be quintessentially Renaissance. The façade takes on a form of humanism, as Corinthian colosseums evidently influenced Alberti, and as previously discussed, columns have anthropometrically defined properties. Alongside this his passion for mathematical and geometric disciplines are expressed on the

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