Book chapter

Lo studio della luce naturale e artificiale nello spazio sacro : Giovanni Gherardi per Santa Maria del Fiore a Firenze e Baldassarre Peruzzi per Santo Stefano Rotondo a Roma

  • Bettini, Sergio Accademia di architettura, Università della Svizzera italiana
    2014
Published in:
  • Manipolare la luce in epoca premoderna : aspetti architettonici, artistici e filosofici = Manipulating light in premodern times : architectural, artistic, and philosophical aspects. - Mendrisio Academy Press ; Silvana Editoriale. - 2014, p. 122-137
English The analysis of two Renaissance drawings offers the occasion for a discussion of light in ecclesiastical architecture. The first example considers the well-known drawing – drafted on parchment by Giovanni di Gherardo Gherardi da Prato in competition with Filippo Brunelleschi for the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore – which constitutes both the fi rst 15th century graphic testimony concerning the natural illumination of the church’s interior, and the only drawing contemporary to its construction that has survived and is datable to 1425. The second drawing is a “studio dal vero” by Baldassarre Peruzzi of Santo Stefano Rotondo in Rome, dating from the beginning of the 16th century. It offers a perspective view of the interior of the monument, portraying a system of artificial lights as evinced by the sharp double-shadows on the pavement, and reminds one of the contemporary studies of Leonardo da Vinci. Because of the importance it attributes to light, this drawing is an unicum among those depicting ancient structures all throughout the Renaissance. It is precisely with the depiction of light, with the irregularity of its reflections and of its shadows, that this study gives the impression of a captivating and suggestive space, actualizing ancient architecture as if it were visible to the present. This is due to the pictorial sensibility of Peruzzi, who knew how to combine a philologic spirit with an unsurpassed expressive naturalism in the Renaissance’s corpus of architectural drawings.
Language
  • Italian
Classification
Architecture
License
License undefined
Identifiers
  • RERO DOC 278109
  • ARK ark:/12658/srd1318924
Persistent URL
https://n2t.net/ark:/12658/srd1318924
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