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Filippo Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
A central dome dominates this space, while greyish-green stone articulates its perfect geometry.
Alberti, Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence
Romanesque, Gothic, or ancient Greek? Whether you divide this façade by styles or squares, its stones come alive.
Michelangelo, Medici Chapel (New Sacristy)
Night and day, rough and polish—this chapel embodies opposition and traps the viewer in a moment of transition.
Brunelleschi, Old Sacristy, San Lorenzo, Florence
Squaring the circle? At this burial site, pendentives unite the dome of heaven and the gravity of earth.
Filippo Brunelleschi, Santo Spirito, Florence
Renaissance Florence, or ancient Rome? This church remade the classical. It’s energetic and dense, but also severe.
Donato Bramante, Tempietto, Rome
This treasure of a building marks the site of St. Peter’s crucifixion. Its ideal geometry looks back to antiquity.
Orsanmichele and Donatello’s Saint Mark, Florence
From granary to—church? Once open to the city, this building and its niches blend the spiritual with the everyday.
Filippo Brunelleschi, Dome of the Cathedral of Florence
Down and out, but still afloat. This huge, hollow dome stays put thanks to its skeletal ribs and “girdle.”
Saint Peter’s Basilica
The greatest minds of the High Renaissance worked on this vast church. Construction took more than a century.
Leon Battista Alberti, Sant’Andrea in Mantua
Three ancient Roman forms combine to bring the grandeur of classical architecture into a Christian context.
