Prints

The work of the finest architects are not suitable for reproductions, as who could afford their own version of the Florence Cathedral! Therefore, their fans and followers are forced to make use of photography and drawings of their original works.

The architecture designed by Filippo Brunelleschi is as beautiful as any landscape scene, and when set against the sunny skies of Tuscany in Italy, it is fairly easy to produce eye catching photographic prints of his finest artistic achievements. Photography itself has become a very popular medium for art prints in recent years, being well suited to reproduction and home display.

This incredible innovator from the Early Renaissance would have marvelled at how his buildings have been depicted over 500 years later, in homes and offices right across the world. Whilst his oeuvre is particularly small when compared to fresco painters or sculptors from this period such as Donatello, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giorgione, Sandro Botticelli and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, his buildings have been photographed from a multitude of angles, inside and outside, within different lighting, and so on.

It is, of course, Filippo Brunelleschi's Dome for the Florence Cathedral that remains his most photographed contribution to the Early Renaissance, though the interior of the San Lorenzo Basilica is also particularly popular. Indoor lighting can be a problem for all but the most professional photographer, and so outdoor photos of his work on the Florence cathedral are normally more suitable choices for when adding art to your own home. You would need to trawl through hundreds of tourist photos to find something worth reproducing as an art print, so using one of the existing galleries from well known art print retailers is a much quicker way of finding professional photographers of your chosen landmark.

The two key reasons to buy a print reproduction of the work of Filippo Brunelleschi would be either for knowledgeable followers of Early Renaissance architecture who wish to appreciate some of the majestic beauty of his career or for tourists who have visited some of these locations, perhaps on an artistic pilgramage across Tuscany, and wish to add a memory of this time to their home, just as they would a family photo.

Photographs are best suited to simple frames, perhaps with a small inlay card that keeps the artwork away from the inside of the frame. Single colour wooden or plastic frames should suffice to allow the photo and its content to take centre stage. A well chosen and correctly sized print, for the wall on which it will be displayed, is probably more important than how you choose to finish the piece.

The alternative to such architectural photography for followers of this highly influential period in European art would be closeups of frescoes by some of the key painters from this era. Those can help to reveal individual brushstrokes, flourishes and other details that you won't be able to see in the present day with the naked eye - see Michelangelo's Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel for an example of this.