BRUNEL L E S C HI or BRUNELLESCO, FILIPPO Italian architect, the reviver of the Roman or Classic style, was born at Florence in 1377. His father, a notary, observing the boy's talent for all sorts of mechanism, placed him in the gild of goldsmiths. Filippo quickly perfected himself in the knowledge of sculpture, perspective and geometry. In 1401 he was one of the competitors for the design of the gates of the baptistery of San Giovanni. He was unsuccessful, though his work obtained praise, and he soon afterwards set out for Rome. He studied hard, and was one of the first to apply the scientific laws of perspective to his work. In 1407 he returned to Florence, just at the time when it was resolved to attempt the completion of the cathedral church of Santa Maria del Fiore. Brunelleschi's Plan for effecting this by a cupola was approved, but it was not till 1419 that the work was finally entrusted to him. He did not live to see the completion of the great cupola, one of the tri umphs of architecture exceeding in some measurements that of St. Peter's at Rome, and has a more massive and striking appearance. His other masterpieces are the Pitti palace at Florence, on the pat tern of which are based the Tuscan palaces of the 15th century, the churches of San Lorenzo and Spirito Santo, and the still more elegant Capella dei Pazzi. The beautiful carved crucifix in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is also the work of Brunelleschi. He died in Florence on April 16 1446, and was buried in the cathedral church of his native city.
See Manetti, Vita di Brunelleschi (Florence, 1812) ; Guasti, La cupola di Santa Maria del Fiore (Florence, 1857) ; von Fabriczy, Filippo Brunelleschi (Stuttgart, 1892).