Joining the bestsellers Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, a lively and intriguing tale of two artists whose competitive spirit brought to life one of the world’s most magnificent structures and ignited the Renaissance
The dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore, the great cathedral of Florence, is among the most enduring symbols of the Renaissance, an equal to the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Its designer was Filippo Brunelleschi, a temperamental architect and inventor who rediscovered the techniques of mathematical perspective. Yet the completion of the dome was not Brunelleschi’s glory alone. He was forced to share the commission with his archrival, the canny and gifted sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti.
In this lush, imaginative history—a fascinating true story of artistic genius and personal triumph—Paul Robert Walker breathes life into these two talented, passionate artists and the competitive drive that united and dived them. As it illuminates fascinating individuals from Donatello and Masaccio to Cosimo de’Medici and Leon Battista Alberti, The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance offers a glorious tour of 15th-century Florence, a bustling city on the verge of greatness in a time of flourishing creativity, rivalry, and genius.
In this fascinating true story of artistic genius and personal triumph, the author brings to life Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti, two talented, passionate artists, and the competitive drive that united and divided them. As this lush, imaginative history illuminates the drama surrounding the birth of a new artistic vision, it also explores the lives of other fascinating individuals, from Donatello and Masaccio to Cosimo de’ Medici and Leon Battista Alberti. The Feud that Sparked the Renaissance offers a glorious tour of fifteenth-century Florence, a bustling city on the verge of greatness, during a time of flourishing creativity.
“Robert Whitfield is a smooth and perfect voice for this journey…At times the narrative crackles like a review of the contemporary art world…it is a well-framed snapshot of a moment in Western cultural history.”—Audiobookcafe.com
