The Evaluative Image of the City Book

The Fued that sparked the Renaissance is a solidly written, exquisitely researched book about a pivotal point in the history of Florence, Italy which can be seen as the original seed from which the Renaissance grew.

The primary focus of the book is the point in time in which two young Florentine artists developed: Filippo Brunelleschi became the person to 'rediscovered' the ancient European techniques of mathematical perspective in art, the perspectives that first started to bring the art of the Renaissance to life in painting and sculpture. Despite this amazing legacy there are no existing paintings (that I know of) from Brunelleschi, his later life was devoted to architecture, the most famous example being designing and constructing the great dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral.

The second artist he book focuses on is Lorenzo Ghiberti, who won a competition to design a set of bronze doors for a church, he won against Brunelleschi and spent the next fifty years making these doors and the whole of his career associated with them. He also was an artistic trend setter in several other ways.

These two major players also were masters or associates for the better known names (such as Donatello) who became better known as part of the renaissance and these are the two players in this alleged 'Feud'. However, I do feel that a better title might have been 'The feud that may or may not have existed with no evidence either way' or maybe the subtitle 'How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti changed the art world'. Maybe that was the original title and the publishers wanted something with more pizaz.

This is an exceedingly well written book, formidably well researched narrative full of historical factual detail and meticulous descriptions of architecture. It took me a long time to read because I am not terribly conversant with Italian history or with architecture and I had to read it carefully to get the information straight in my head. I certainly know way more about the origins of the Renaissance that before.