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The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World
by Paul Robert Walker
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Harper Perennial (2003-12-01)
ISBN: 0380807920
EAN: 9780380807925
Dewy Decimal #: 909
Paperback: 304 pages
Release Date: 2003-11-25
SKU: 07040380
Condition: Like New As issued n
Comments: Paperback. Like new condition with no markings and no creases to spine or cover. Very slight wear to cover. Near fine copy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
A lively and intriguing tale of the competition between two artists, culminating in the construction of the Duomo in Florence, this is also the story of a city on the verge of greatness, and the dawn of the Renaissance, when everything artistic would change. Florence's Duomo – the dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral – is one of the most enduring symbols of the Italian Renaissance, an equal in influence and fame to Leonardo and Michaelangelo's works. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, the temperamental architect who rediscovered the techniques of mathematical perspective. He was the dome's 'inventor', whose secret methods for building remain a mystery as compelling to architects as Fermat's Last Theorem once was to mathematicians. Yet Brunelleschi didn't direct the construction of the dome alone. He was forced to share the commission with his arch–rival, the sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, whose 'Paradise Doors' are also masterworks. This is the story of these two men – a tale of artistic genius and individual triumph.
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Customer Reviews
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The Renaissance comes to life
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-01-05
That this book was chosen to be sold at the recent exhibit of Ghiberti's doors at the Metropolitan Museum in New York (and not some dry Art History account on slick paper) is another example of the genuine taste shown in the arrangement of the exhibit, in which several panels from the doors were displayed in such a way that the rough backs could be viewed as well as the incredibly beautiful bas reliefs on the front. It's no surprise that works like these took so long to complete. Nor is it a surprise, having seen them, that, as Walker surmises, it was Ghiberti's expertise (on an earlier set of doors) that turned Brunelleschi towards an arena in which his rivals could not compete: architecture. As compared with the various cold, lifeless accounts of the making of the dome and other facets of this story, that someone has moved away from the didactic to bring it to life as one of the great moments in human history is a real blessing. Of most value to me personally is the way it puts the entire panoply of Renaissance Italian artists into perspective. That Brunelleschi was the first to establish not just perspective but the essential style of Florentine architechture for the next century (and I would add, creating what we now attribute to Andrea Palladio, just as we attribute some of Brunelleschi's inventions to da Vinci) is so important as to outweigh any trifling imperfections in Walker's style. This book certainly deserves a hardback edition, full color plates, and some solid promotion, particularly to university bookstores and art museums.
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Compelling reading
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-12-30
2 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
An engaging treatment of the rivalry between two creative giants. This book takes you into the time period and opens the world of the early Renaissance to the modern reader. The author's thorough scholarship makes Brunelleschi & Ghiberti more real than do the work of some others and yields a true feel for both the time period and the individuals involved. If you love history, art or architecture you will enjoy this book!
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A great story... well told
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-07-26
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Renaissance is a subject of great interest and curiousity to me. The author provided for me a depth of information, with supporting detail, I found very engaging. I am a docent at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco where we are blessed with an exact copy of the Ghiberti Paradise Doors.. one of just three in the world stuck from molds of the original panels. I learned of this book from a visitor who told me she could not believe her surprise and good fortune to see the doors here after her enjoyment of the book. She was correct. I believe the author provides a very good mix of history, supporting documentation and story telling to move this beyond a flat text book and into a favorite reference for me.
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Interesting Subject - Horriblely Written
Rating  (1)
Date: 2006-02-27
3 out of 7 customers found this reveiw helpful
I love reading about this time period, so I thought I'd really love this book. But I didn't. It was poorly written on three major ways.
1. He was wishy-washy. He couldn't take a stand on the facts he researched. He would say, it isn't clearly documented, or some research said this, some said that, etc. And he annoyingly kept interupting himself to state this! Made me feel that he did some research, but couldn't figure it out. I've read other authors who write about history that can take the facts and distill them into a clear viewpoint. So what if others refute it, take a stand, have an opionion!
2. He kept flip-flopping by referring to the characters by their first name then their last. Pick one and be consistent!
3. It was very disjointedly written. Another reviewer mentioned that he'd start talking about something, then in the next paragraph talk about something else totally unrelated. I kept looking for some kind of organization to the whole thing, but never found it.
If you want to read some good books about this time period - written by a better author, but historical FICTION, read Dorothy Dunnet's House of Niccolo Series. Now THAT's how the Renaissance should be written!
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There are better books on this subject
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-08-02
14 out of 17 customers found this reveiw helpful
I cannot recommend this book for several reasons:
1. The premise of the book is specious. There is no true evidence that Brunelleschi and Ghiberti engaged in a "feud". While they certainly competed with each other for the same commissions on occasion, this was completely expected during that period, and ultimately each distinguished himself well as a master artist and craftsman. There is very little evidence that either character attempted to discredit or destroy the other.
2. Because there is little evidence of this feud, the author spends a lot of time using conjecture to argue an ultimately baseless point. Those pages are largely wasted reading.
3. The author's focus detracts from the incredible contribution each of these men made to the Renaissance. Sadly, it's hard to get a sense of that from this book. Brunelleschi may have been the greatest architect in the history of Western civilization. One gets no sense of that from this book. The brilliance of his achievements are largely glossed over. Much of the same can be said for the author's treatment of Ghiberti. It does a disservice to both.
If you have an interest in the dome at Santa Maria della Fiore and/or Ghiberti's doors at the Baptistry on the same site, please read 'Brunelleschi's Dome', by Ross King. It's a very well-researched book and gives the reader a far better view into these two great artists. That book is highly recommended. Sadly, I cannot recommend "The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance".
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