proficient in the setting of precious stones, which he did much better
than any old artists in the vocation. He also wrought in niello, and
executed several figures which were highly commended, particularly two
figures of Prophets, for an altar in the Cathedral of Pistoja. Filippo
next turned his attention to sculpture, and executed works in
basso-relievo, which showed an extraordinary genius. Subsequently,
having made the acquaintance of several learned men, he began to turn
his attention to the computation of the divisions of time, the
adjustment of weights, the movement of wheels, etc. He next bent his
thoughts to the study of perspective, to which, before his time, so
little attention was paid by artists, that the figures often appeared to
be slipping off the canvas, and the buildings had not a true point of
view. He was one of the first who revived the Greek practice of
rendering the precepts of geometry subservient to the painter; for this
purpose, he studied with the famous geometrician Toscanelli, who was
also the instructor, friend, and counsellor of Columbus. Filippo pursued
his investigations until he brought perspective to great perfection; he
was the first who discovered a perfectly correct method of taking the
ground plan and sections of buildings, by means of intersecting
lines--"a truly ingenious thing," says Vasari, "and of great utility to
the arts of design." Filippo freely communicated his discoveries to his
brother artists. He was imitated in mosaic by Benedetto da Macano, and
in painting by Masaccio, who were his pupils. Vasari says Brunelleschi
was a man of such exalted genius, that "we may truly declare him to have
been given to us by Heaven, for the purpose of imparting a new spirit to
architecture, which for hundreds of years had been lost; for the men of
those times had badly expended great treasures in the erection of
buildings without order, constructed in a most wretched manner, after
deplorable designs, with fantastic inventions, labored graces, and worse
decorations. But it then pleased Heaven, the earth having been for so
many years destitute of any distinguished mind and divine genius, that
Filippo Brunelleschi should leave to the world, the most noble, vast,
and beautiful edifice that had ever been constructed in modern times, or
even in those of the ancients; giving proof that the talent of the
Tuscan artists, although lost for a time, was not extinguished. He was,
moreover, adorned by