L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano LA VITA ITALIANA TRADITIONS HISTORY CULTURE SIMONE SANNIO M ichelangelo, Raffaello, Leonardo... and then again Leonardo, Galileo, and many more famed artists and scientists: there is no doubt that F irenze – the Renaissance City – has been for centuries the real keystone of both Western art and modern science. In fact, it appears that some of the leading figures of the city's art scene were also very well-versed in subjects as diverse as geometry, mathemat- ics, astronomy, and anatomy, among others. In spite of this well-known fact, though, the intersection between architecture and mathematical proportions which plays such a crucial role in making Florence's churches and palaces look so perfect is still often overlooked. Let's take a walk through the "city of art and science," stop in front of its main sights and look more close- ly at their façades in search of Firenze's sacred geometry: a "secret geometry" as well, after all. Our "scientific tour" of the city's historic center cannot but begin in the Piazza del Duomo main square. We could almost say that everything we really need to know about the geome- try of Florence stands right here in front of us, under everyone's eyes, in one of the most visited places in the w hole planet. A ltho ugh the s ecrets of the unique buildings that make up the complex of Santa Maria del Fiore are there for all to see, only a small part of the millions of people that every year visit these monuments, taking pic- tures and selfies and sending postcards all over the world actually seems to notice. Take, for example, the Battis ter o di San G iovanni (Baptistery of Saint John), the oldest building in the square: a single glance cannot possibly help us figure out just how com- plex, awe-inspiring, and perfect this monument is. Of course, it is easy to detect its octagon-shaped design, shared by other similar religious buildings: but what about each of its eight sides? Every s ingle one of them is divided horizontally into three sections, in turn split vertically into just as many parts: the upper section, in particular, is made up of three small windows included in a three-part pattern, while the middle one has three blind arch- es, each including a bigger win- dow. This tangle of geometrical shapes might seem complicated enough as it is: but again, what about the carefully planned alter- nation of white Carrara marble and green Prato marble? And what about the sequence of the bronze door panels by masters Lorenzo Ghiberti and Andrea Pisano, to say nothing of the building's interiors ? S ure enough, the Baptistery's ground- breaking commingling of art and science does not end there: apart from the awesomeness of the tri- angular ceiling mosaics under the dome, San Giovanni also hides within it an unexpected tribute to astronomy engraved on the marble floor, namely a solstice sundial representing the signs of the Zodiac. All things considered, it is no s urpris e that during the Renais s ance the Battis ter o became the most revered build- ing in the city, thus having a huge influence on the construc- tion and the adornment of the near bell tower and cathedral. Most inspired by it was probably the great architect F ilippo Brunelleschi, who managed to discover linear perspective – car- rying out a real Copernican revo- lution in Western art – by care- fully studying the shape and s ymmetry of the octagonal Florence Baptistery. Just a few years later, Brunelleschi capital- ized on his own findings by real- izing the impressive brick dome of the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, an unsurpassed mas- terpiece: as it appears, the exter- nal structure is not simply circu- lar as one would expect, but rather octagon-shaped – just like that of the Battistero – and sus- tained by some "ribs," so as to better withstand its own weight through geometric proportions. But there is a lot more maths hidden in Brunelleschi's dome: according to expert opinion, for instance, the size of the dome itself was based on nothing less than the golden ratio, the so- called "divine proportion," if not on the Fibonacci sequence. As for the other sciences honored on the cathedral's façade, we notice a bust of Galileo on the bottom left corner of the central rose window, as well as a series of geometrical panels with allegori- cal repres entations of the "Liberal Arts" on Giotto's cam- panile: among them, architec- ture, sculpture, and painting are coupled with arithmetic, geome- try, and astronomy. U ltimately w hat emerges from our exploration of the Piazza del Duomo is that during the Renaissance the fields of art and science were not as neatly separated as they are today. Just think that another great architect and mathematician of that golden era, Leon Battista Alberti, stated – at the end of his famous trea- tis e O n Painting – that "no painter could paint well who did not know much geometry." But there is another particular reason w hy mathematics s o greatly influenced the aesthetic and tech- nical choices of the masters of the past: observance of the laws of geometry, resulting in balance and grace, allow ed the Renaissance artists to pursue divine perfection, so that man could get closer to God. It is exactly the same lesson we learn from Leonardo da Vinci's draw- ing of the Vitr uvian Man: a human figure inscribed in a cir- cle and a square, representing Heaven and Earth respectively – the perfect symbol of the sym- metry of man and nature, but also the ultimate, intimate union of art and science. It would probably take an entire lifetime to discover all the secret patterns that lie hidden beneath the surface of Florence's monuments and palaces. Our walk could include, for example, a visit to the armillary sphere and gnomon on the lively façade of Santa Maria Novella – one of Alberti's greatest masterpieces – or else the admirable interlock- ing of geometric shapes in San L or enz o's O ld S acris ty and Santa Croce's Pazzi Chapel, both by Brunelleschi. An itiner- ary seeking to show the close link between Florentine art and science, however, can hardly ignore the collection of the Mus eo G alileo (the former Institute and Museum for the History of Science) or the Museo Fir ST – Fir enz e Scienz a e Tecnica (Florence Museum of Science and Technology). The latter, in particular, occasionally organizes – in cooperation with the University of Florence's math department – a series of passeggiate matematiche: "math- ematical walks" through the city led by specialists and researchers who have really devoted their life to the study of Renaissance Geometry is visible everywhere in Florence, one just needs to pay attention The Battistero di San Giovanni is a perfect example of geometry at work in Florentine architecture The secret geometry of Florence: a scientific tour of the renaissance city

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