The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance

I have discovered the joy of painting on panel. I have discovered the joy of thickened linseed oil. Life in the studio is good, despite the plastic already covering the windows against Chicago's chilly onslaught.

I just finished reading The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance by Paul Robert Walker. This book tells the story of the artistic feud between Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi in Florence in the early 1400s. Using the competition to design the bronze doors of Florence's Baptistry (commonly regarded as the 'start' of the Renaissance) as a jumping-off point, Walker follows the creative development of these two artists through the completion of the dome of Florence's Duomo, in it's time the largest dome ever built (and still the largest masonry dome in existence.) The author ties in from time to time the lives of Donatello, Masaccio, Nanni di Banco, and other masters of the early Renaissance in Florence, but focuses his tale mainly on Ghiberti and Brunelleschi. He draws on Manetti and Vasari for anecdotes and general facts, but isn't afraid to refute their often glorifying relations of events.

The main flaw I found in this book was Walker's clear reverence of Brunelleschi. It's hard not to have affection and admiration for such a remarkable man; an inventor, sculptor, painter, architect when there were no architects, and a politician and adoptive father to boot. But Walker's narrative style loses steam when it gets bogged down too much in the feud between the two artists. In fact, it seems almost as though the feud was largely on Ghiberti's side, always trying to sneak his way in for a bigger slice of glory. The interaction between the artists is fascinating and relevant, but is given perhaps too much importance, when the personal drives of both men are so strong.

My only complaint behind me, this book was a great joy to read. I had a basic familiarity with this story from an early Renaissance art history class I was lucky enough to take during a semester in Rome, and I've had the good fortune of being able to take three trips to Florence to see a good portion of the architectural sites and art discussed in this book. This book has reminded me how much I love art history, and I've just purchased Painting in Florence and Siena After the Black Death by Millard Miess and Signs and Symbols in Christian Art by George Ferguson to read during these coming 'inside months'.