In my thesis, I researched the dome of the Florence Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, which was designed and built by Filippo Brunelleschi. The dome, which was built between 1420 and 1436, is considered the most important architectural work of the early Renaissance and is the basis for later architectural achievements of this kind. The goal of the task was to conduct a contextual and formal analysis of the dome. Initially, I highlighted the social, political, and cultural context in Florence at the beginning of the 15th century, and then I described the competition for the selection of the architect of the dome in detail. I have dedicated part of the task to the chronological description of the cathedral's construction and its dome. Later, I also formally analyzed the dome. In the central part, I focused on how the dome embodied the ideals of Renaissance architecture. I made connections with Alberti's architectural theory, in the next subchapter with Christian symbolism and other ideals such as symmetry, geometry, the concept of uomo universale, etc. I was also interested in how older architecture influenced Brunelleschi and how his dome influenced later architecture. Here, I was looking for connections with the help of specific examples from different stylistic periods. I was interested in less obvious connections which are not present in existing literature. For the research, I used the descriptive method and literature study, historical method, observation method, and the method of formal and contextual analysis. I have discovered how the dome introduced new formal, structural, and symbolic principles that were based on the reinterpretation of ancient Roman architecture and how it contributed to the transition from Gothic to Renaissance. I also found some connections on how the dome influenced later architecture, both indirectly and directly. In the empirical part, I focused on the question of which ideal Renaissance proportions can be found in the Santa Maria del Fiore church and its dome. After reviewing the literature, I found that no one had investigated the proportions in the church in question, so I conducted my own research using a qualitative method. I found that there are many examples of simple Renaissance proportions such as 1:1, 1:2, 2:3, 4:5 and 3:5 in the church and dome. In the church I also identified the golden ratio. It can be concluded that Brunelleschi adapted the dimensions of the dome to the gothic church in such a way as to achieve these ideal proportions, which contributed to the establishment of new architectural principles.
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