Brunelleski's way of working

Brunelleski tried to preserve in the secret his developments, including the model of cupola and the designs of mechanisms. He ordered each component to different smelters, blacksmiths and other masters, who lived beyond the limits of Florence. Brunelleski’s mechanisms were the component part of his general method of the erection of cupola. For example, the device of hoist speaks about the brilliance of the author and about his deep knowledge in mechanisms. Some components of hoist did not have an analog in the past, and crane and horizontal winch were fundamentally new construction.

During your romantic journey provided by Travelocity you must focus attention on the lamp. When Brunelleski died, the building of the lamp was not completed yet. We have got some pieces of information, from which it is possible to know about Brunelleski’s project of a lamp. In addition to these data, we have a few drawings made by Buanakkorso and Leonardo da Vinci.

In 1468 Andrea Dale Verrokkio (1435-1488), the Florentine sculptor, obtained a particular order for the production of sphere and its copper body. The cross was prepared by other masters. It was lately established on the sphere. The wooden scaffolding that Brunelleski built for the building of the lamp was not removed, when the sphere and the cross were established. In one of Giovanni Utili’s pictures (1470) one can see the cupola of the Florentine cathedral, on which the scaffolding was preserved. The picture scrap gives an idea about the things that were on the terrace of cupola and around the lamp.