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

by Paul Robert Walker

Renaissance, a rebirth of ancient art and learning. Yet it was more than a rebirth or rediscovery of ancient secrets; it was a first birth, the beginning of a modern consciousness, a modern way of seeing and representing the world around us. It was the defining moment for the societal role we call the artist. It was the beginning of Art with a capital A.

For Manetti, Brunelleschi is a man who lost the battle but won the war. And with this, too, most modern critics would agree.

the Vita is the Gospel of Brunelleschi, and Manetti saw his hero as a savior who rescued the artistic world from the depths of Gothic doldrums and gave it new life with a style alla Romana or all’antica.

the Bianchi brought plague along with reconciliation. The pestilence had already struck Italy when the movement began, and the thousands of barefoot, white-robed pilgrims helped to carry it from town to town, so that it became known as the plague of the Bianchi.

For Brunelleschi, Man occupies the center of the universe because he contains the divine.