Major Works of Art and Architecture
Ross King's Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral of Florence chronicles the ambitious construction of the Florence Cathedral's iconic dome during the Renaissance. The book focuses on Filippo Brunelleschi, the visionary architect whose innovative engineering solutions overcame the challenges posed by building the largest dome of its time without traditional wooden scaffolding. King explores the artistic, political, and technical complexities of the project, providing deep insights into Renaissance culture and the era’s spirit of invention. The narrative combines historical detail with storytelling to highlight Brunelleschi’s lasting impact on architecture and engineering. This is an absolute must read before visiting Florence, the Duomo and, if willing, climbing up the ancient stairs to get to the top of the dome. (Vintage, 2008)
Antonio Forcellino’s The Sistine Chapel offers a concise, richly illustrated history of the chapel’s creation, decoration, and ongoing cultural significance, tracing its construction, Michelangelo’s monumental ceiling and Last Judgment, the contributions of other Renaissance masters, and later restorations while situating the chapel within the religious, political, and artistic currents of its time. The main message of the book emphasizes the Sistine Chapel as both a supreme achievement of Renaissance art and a complex symbol where artistic genius, papal power, theological meaning, and the practicalities of workshop and conservation intersect.
Forcellino is an art historian and curator specialising in Renaissance and Baroque art, author of several books on Italian art and architecture including one on Michelangelo and another on Raphael. (Polity Press, 2022)