The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World

The two brilliant young Florentine artists Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti first competed to design a set of bronze doors for the Church of St. John the Baptist. The victory went to Ghiberti, who spent fifty years creating the magnificent doors and who cast a second set so exquisite that Michelangelo deemed them worthy to stand at the Gates of Paradise. Brunelleschi took a different path, redefining himself as an architect, rediscovering the techniques of mathematical perspective, and solving the greatest construction problem of his time: the magnificent dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral. Yet the dome was not Brunelleschi's glory alone; he was forced to share the commission with his old archrival Ghiberti, who seemed to haunt his every move.In The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance, Paul Robert Walker breathes life into these two talented, passionate artists, and offers a glorious tour of fifteenth-century Florence, a bustling city on the verge of greatness in a time of flourishing creativity, rivalry, and genius.