Why Filippo Brunelleschi is a model for Italian digital craftsmen and flexible factories
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Around the beginning of the 15th century, central-northern Italy was, probably, the most innovative area on the Earth; the Renaissance equivalent of today’s Silicon Valley. The most important center in the region was Florence, with its banks, its wool and silk factories, its technicians and its artists. Recently, US journalist Eric Weiner elevated the Italian city to a model for every technology innovation hub; in an article for the Harvard Business Review, he wrote: «Those hoping to launch the world’s next great innovation hub would be better off looking to an older, even more, remarkable genius cluster: Renaissance Florence. The Italian city-state produced an explosion of great art and brilliant ideas, the likes of which the world has not seen before or since».
Recently, US journalist Eric Weiner elevated Florence to a model for every technology innovation hub
15th century Florence was the destination for every kind of business, technological or artistic talents such as Leon Battista Alberti, who was Florentine from his father’s side but was born in Genoa, and studied and worked in Padua, Venice, Ferrara, Bologna and Rome (where he met some of the brightest minds of his age). Alberti had a beautiful and versatile mind. As Landino wrote, «What branch of mathematics did Alberti not know? He was geometrician, arithmetician, astronomer, musician, and more admirable in perspective than any man in many centuries […] Not only did he write, but he made works with brush, chisel, burin, and bronze».
According to Swiss historian Burckhardt, Brunelleschi was a «universal man». In the opinion of Italian critic Francesco de Sanctis, he was «a painter, architect, poet, sage, philosopher, and humanist». Nevertheless, Alberti could recognize genius when he saw it. For this reason, he wanted to dedicate “Della pittura” to «architect Pippo», that is Filippo Brunelleschi, who he considered to be the most creative mind of his age (together with Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, della Robbia and Masaccio). Actually, Brunelleschi perfectly embodies a certain type of Italian genius, capable of turning the greatest abstraction into a solid reality.
Greater than Alberti, Brunelleschi is a source of inspiration for every 21st century “digital craftsman” and for every “flexible factory” across Italy (HSL included). In fact, even a severe historian such as Michelet sang his praises, calling him «a merciless calculating man», who succeeded in reconciling faith and reason, making «the marriage between the beauty and the truth» real. Brunelleschi’s work laid «the first stone of Renaissance»; it was the pillar of a wonderful building, both a tribute to classical art and, at the same time, a triumph of a new mathematical spirit.
Brunelleschi’s work laid «the first stone of Renaissance»
Consider the famous dome (cupola, in Italian) of the Florence Cathedral. Brunelleschi erected it «with no wooden or iron framework, as stunning as that is to say» (Manetti). Today, the dome still amazes millions of tourists with its beauty, but at that time, it left Florentines speechless. Brunelleschi was hailed as «the prince of all architects» (Manetti), «king of the world» (Benedetto Dei), «great in geometry and perfect master of sculpture», a man «of immense intelligence and creativity» (Rucellai).
In fact, Brunelleschi was a complete genius, a very flexible innovator able to combine art and aesthetics (he was also a great sculptor and a goldsmith — see the “Sacrificio di Isacco” at the Bargello) with mathematics and geometry. He had a deep knowledge of techniques, methods and materials, and good managerial skills (building the dome was not a joke: funding was limited, and clients were tough people). Quite rightly, Italian art historian Giulio Carlo Argan said: «if Brunelleschi lived in this century, in Italy, he would be Olivetti’s architect».
Thanks to Brunelleschi, Florence had a dome that is still «the largest brick construction of its genre in the world», as recently said by Paolo Dario, director of the Biorobotics Institute of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies. Brunelleschi’s dome still seems to defy the laws of nature, and it is the product of an intelligence capable of giving life to every enterprise. For this reason, Brunelleschi, a man of the 15th century, continues to be a source of inspiration and a model.
