Brunelleschi's Santo Spirito, Florence, 1428-81

Filippo Brunelleschi's Santo Spirito, Florence, 1428-81

Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris & Dr. Steven Zucker

(piano music)

Steven: We've in Santo Spirito,

one of Brunelleschi's last churches;

in fact, I believe only
one column was raised

by the time he passed away.

Beth: And we see a lot of
the same things that we see

in the Old Sacristy or in the
Pazzi Chapel by Brunelleschi.

The use of this dark
grayish green pietra serena

that creates the columns and the mouldings

and the cornices.

Just yesterday we were in
the Laurentian Library,

designed by Michelangelo,

which is also these white
walls and the pietra serena

and also very muscular, energetic space,

and when we're here
today in Santo Spirito,

I can really see that Michelangelo

was building on what Brunelleschi did.

Steven: There is a kind
of willingness to allow

what would formally have
been the trim of the wall

to become a visual force in itself.

Beth: The church is a
basilica in its plan,

with a dome over the crossing,

but Brunelleschi, in his
typical interest in geometry,

used the square that forms the crossing

as the basic unit of measurement
throughout the church.

Steven: There's also a relationship

between those widths and
the elevation of the church.

Rigorous continuity in
the geometry throughout.

Beth: A sense of circles and semicircles

and squares and rectangles

that all relate to one another.

Steven: Brunelleschi has
created a mathematical system

that is so self-evident
and makes so much sense

that there aren't other options.

Beth: The mathematics determine the space,

and I think that that idea of beauty

residing in the relationships

between the parts of the church,

not in any one feature,

but in those proportional relationships,

is something that is very
important to Brunelleschi,

and is also something that Brunelleschi

is deriving from his study of
ancient Roman architecture.

Steven: This is a
building that feels to me

about the relationship also between

the line of the pietra serena

and the plain of the stucco in between,

but unlike some of
Brunelleschi's earlier work,

the pietro serena has expanded;

it's become more muscular.

Beth: You can see the
pietra serena expanding,

almost as if it's growing over the arches,

so it almost reaches

the stringcourse molding
below the cornice.

Steven: There seems to be that expansion

of the pietra serena in
the stringcourses above;

in the extra cornices that exist

above each of the capitals
of each of the columns,

and even at the bases of the column,

the pietra serena seems to expand outward

into the paving itself

until the pietra serena
is no longer functioning,

really, as line against plain,

but becoming a kind of sculptural form.

In fact it gives the entire church

a kind of visual density.

Beth: It's a space that has a tension

between energy in the pietra serena

and the simplicity of
the spatial elements.

I think it's also really
important to talk about

how classic this looks;
we really have a sense

of being in an ancient Roman building,

but there is a kind of severity here.

We don't see fluting in the
columns or in the pilasters.

Steven: And the pietra serena's tone

is a serious tone.

This church is one of
the great expressions

of early Renaissance architecture.

It's sometimes seen as a summation

of the vocabulary that
Brunelleschi created

over his lifetime,
which was revolutionary.

(piano music)