Brick and Mortar, Paint and Metal: Architecture and Craft in Renaissance Florence and Beyond

Abstract

It is well known that many figures who rose to prominence as architects were initially trained as sculptors, metalworkers, carvers or painters, from Filippo Brunelleschi, who first learned the goldsmith trade, to Andrea Palladio, who started his career as a stonecutter. Yet how exactly their careers evolved and how their training informed their practice as architects remains an underexplored subject in architectural history. This article explores the social, intellectual and practical implications of craftsmanship in 15th- and 16th-century Italy, probing the relationship between painting, sculpture, metalwork and architecture by problematising the theoretical framework of disegno and interrogating measuring practices. In shedding light on the narrative potential of buildings and the broad cultural significance of architectural forms beyond three-dimensional, large-scale buildings, this research underscores how the historiographical gap between art and architectural history has hindered our understanding of craft and the contribution artists made to architectural practice.